Why India may do much better off with COVID-19

COVID-19 in India

Abstract

In developing countries with a huge population like India, there are a number of prevailing infections that are relatively less common or not seen in the developed countries. In India, there are at least 2-3 seasons ever year when people catch a variety of flu: influenza, dengue and chikungunya, among other infections. The prevalence of these infections must have put humans under selective pressure, resulting in the selection of genomic variations that make them better fit to handle such infections. Further, while flu vaccine is available and is invariably used across a number of developed countries, it is neither included in the national healthcare programme nor considered to be essential by most Indian people. This leaves the natural system to handle the infections in the natural way, resulting in selection pressure on immunity genes. This may explain lesser number of infections, low level of morbidity and lesser percentage of deaths due to COVID-19. Since there is no data with respect to the level of morbidity, particularly the length of infection in infected individuals and the level of medical aid required to manage the patient, collection of such data would provide further clues to this proposal.