This is something my friend from the Philippines who works in the medical field brought up.
He said that living in a 3rd world squalor (like bad water, bad air, constant exposure to disease) could actually make a persons immune system stronger so they could better fight off this new virus/
He also said while this disease is hitting the Philippines, its only really killing the elderly and vulnerable and that many of the younger people there are not taking it seriously.
Not that its a treatment or anything but is this possible?
I somehow doubt it, unless you’re lucky enough to live in 3rd world squalor, while simultaneously having first world nutrition, healthcare and drugs. Those are also very important to survival. I mean, the medieval times were pretty third world squalor and people didn’t just shrug off plagues.
While I’m a big believer in the hygiene hypothesis and think exposure to certain pathogens and parasites could strengthen your immune system I’m not sure how much it really applies to a novel virus that presumably nobody had really been exposed to before.
Also there is a difference between living in squalor and being exposed to a more diverse collection of germs and living in squalor and being exposed to air and water pollution, just straight up toxins, would tend to just weaken your immune system if anything.
Here is an article about a Louisiana county that is known to be highly polluted that has a higher death rate that New York proportionally speaking:
They aggressively screened people flying in, engaged in massive contact tracing, and started restricting travel before there was a case in country. Their success was getting on top of things early, not in some kind of conferred resistance from poor living conditions.
Also, a supposed boost in natural resistance doesn’t seem to apply to any other viruses. Countries with higher vaccination rates (higher than the US in many cases) do better against those viruses. Outbreaks of measles and polio in developing nations are still associated with lack of vaccination - and note that the developed nations do much better against polio than those, a supposed natural resistance notwithstanding. Likewise, flu death rates are lower in developed nations.
ETA: Sure, a too clean environment can be detrimental to development, but the converse isn’t true. Living in squalor doesn’t make your immune system better at handling things than a normal childhood with normal amounts of playing in and around dirt and can be arguably worse if it means living in heavily polluted areas.
IANA clinician, but three possibilities come to mind, other than what the OP mentioned:
I’m wondering if a relatively smaller proportion of elderly third-world populations may be a factor, since the elderly seem to be at higher risk off acquiring severe symptoms.
Maybe people with very limited financial means are less likely to see a doctor and get their malady positively identified, especially if the symptoms are not life-threateningly severe.
Likewise, maybe more people dying at home, without having been tested for COVID-19 infection. Hard to tell from any of the data I have easy access to.
‘3rd world’ is imho a bad phrase , an outdated phrase.
On covid19 - It’s much to do with weather. All the covid-19 hotbeds are right now having relatively cold weather, and those which are not suffering badly are having hot weather.
I am in India, temperatures 30 plus degree Celsius. Quite overcrowded, 5k cases yet out of 1.5 billion (fingers crossed). Although I do agree, indians would be having tougher immune system against bacteria and viruses. But I could be wrong. But quite confident on weather slowing the virus spread. Also the country is in lockdown since 2 weaks.
It’s spread pretty well in Panama, where I am, and where it’s pretty hot. I am not aware of any data indicating that warmer weather slows its spread. If you have some data besides your personal opinion, please provide it.
The article also says the phrase has become outdated.
IMHO, one reason of its usage nowadays may be to belittle someone else (other countries) to feel better about themselves (their country) or maybe helps them to sell themselves better. I don’t know.
Isn’t it obvious? Iran, Wuhan, Europe, new york - all hotbeds are cold. Warmer weather gives you more time to prepare as spread is slower, however you can’t be complacent.
Here in India, govt. Says there is still no community spread. 80-90% patients are being traced back to 1 particular gathering of thousands of Muslims (Tablighi jamaat) in a building which went on for several days or to foreign-returned Indians or their relatives.
Also, in India, testing rate is very very low. Yet just 1 in 50 is coming out positive that’s 2%. Compare to 25% test positives in Italy. So the spread is slow till now.
Chances are the numbers for India and for that matter, most other countries, are a serious undercount. But the amont of undercounting probably varies from country to country, so you can’t really compare them and get a meaningful conclusion. Looking at how the numbers for a given country change from day to day is probably meaningful, but that’s probably the limit of what those numbers are good for.
I guess it’s not impossible that someone living in actual third world squalor, like makes their living scrounging the dump, it’s possible she’d be exposed to enough similar viruses on a regular basis to have some immunity. Simply being in a shitty neighborhood, I don’t know.
sure I am thinking 10 times the number of infected people as compared to the reported figure, but if you look at the death rate, India’s till now is 2-3% italy’s is what maybe 10%? maybe Indians recently got it and will die later on but till now it suggests there is more under counting in lot of other countries than there is in India…
India is doing very targeted testing and yet just 2% here coming out positive, that tells something, don’t you think?
This is the Straight Dope. “Isn’t it obvious” is never the correct response when asked for actual data. Offhand, I would hypothesize that countries that haven’t been hit so hard were countries where the first cases showed up later. There’s far more air travel between the countries of the temperate zone than there is between them and tropical countries, so I believe they generally were infected first.
As I said, I am unaware of any data demonstrating that the virus does less well in warm countries, and you’ve failed to provide any evidence to that effect. There could be many other factors affecting the number of cases in India.
There have been times in history when particular diseases and conditions were more common in the rich than in the poor*. Generally this is considered a big clue that the rich are doing something that is high status but (unknown to them) dangerous - but these are exceptions to the general rule that being rich is strongly associated with healthier conditions (like better access to food, medicine, clean water, etc.)
Those advocating life in filthy impoverished squalor are invited to try it our and report back, if able. One need not venture far from home in the US to find such conditions.
I predict less developed and even nominally “modern” jurisdictions whose leaders ignore medical advice will explode soon. Some of their elites may survive… if they leave for safety. Where is Carlos Slim right now?