Malaria Endemicity Influence on COVID -19 Mortality: New Evidence Added to BCG and TB Prevalence

Raham, T. F.

Background: Regarding SARS-CoV-2 it is well known that a substantial percentage of adult population cannot get infected if exposed to this novel coronavirus. Several studies give primary indication of the possible role of preexisting immunity whether cross immunity or not. Possible role of latent TB and BCG have been already suggested to create innate cross heterogeneous immunity. Possible role of malaria is suggested in this paper possibly by same mechanism of protection. Material and methods:80 malarious countries are enrolled in this study. Hierarchical multiple regression type of analyses is used for data analyses. TB prevalence/ 100,000 population standardized to BCG coverage rates is taken as direct factor in the test. Malaria incidence /1000 population is considered as intermediate factor and the outcome is COVID-19 mortality/ 1 million (M) population. Results: The results show with robust statistical support that standerized TB prevalence to BCG coverage is significantly associated with reduced COVID-19 mortality and malaria incidence have an additional highly significant effect in reducing COVID-19 mortality. Conclusions: Malaria and standardized TB prevalence are statistical significant factors predicting COVID-19 mortality in negative associations.