"Association between air pollution in Lima and the high incidence of COVID-19: findings from a post hoc analysis."

• Published in: Research square
• Main Authors: Vasquez-Apestegui, Bertha V, Parras-Garrido, Enrique, Tapia, Vilma, Paz-Aparicio, Valeria M, Rojas, Jhojan P, Ccoyllo, Odón R Sánchez, Gonzales, Gustavo F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.03.2021
• DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-39404/v2

Background Corona virus disease (COVID-19) originated in China in December 2019. Thereafter, a global logarithmic expansion of the cases has occurred. Some countries have a higher rate of infections despite of early implementation of quarantine. Air pollution could be related to the high susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and the associated case-fatality rates (deaths/cases*100). Lima, Peru has the second highest incidence of COVID-19 in Latin America, and it is also one of the cities with highest levels of air pollution in the Region. Methods This study investigated the association of the levels of PM exposure in the previous years (2010-2016) in 24 districts of Lima with the positive-cases, deaths and case-fatality rates of COVID-19. Multiple Linear regression was used to evaluate this association controlled by age, sex, population density and number of food markets per district. The study period was from March 6 to June 12, 2020. Results There were in Lima 128,700 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases, and 2,382 deaths due to COVID-19. The case-fatality rate was 1.93%. Previous exposure to PM (years 2010-2016) was associated with number of Covid-19 positive-cases (  = 0.07; 95% CI: 0.034-0.107) and deaths (  = 0.0014; 95% CI: 0.0006-0.0.0023), but not with case-fatality rate. Conclusions the higher rates of COVID-19 in Metropolitan Lima is attributable, among others, to the increased PM exposure in the previous years after adjusting for age, sex and number of food markets. Reduction of air pollution since a long-term perspective, and social distancing are needed to prevent spreads of virus outbreak.