Impact of air pollution and smoking on COVID-19: a review

Vijayakumar, Vijaytha; Sabu, A.; Haridas, M.

BACKGROUND: The 21st century already witnessed many deadly epidemics and pandemics. The major ones were respiratory tract infections like SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009), MERS (2012) and the most recent pandemic COVID-19 (2019). The COVID-19 story begins when pneumonia of unknown cause was reported in the WHO country office of China at the end of 2019. SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent that enters the host through the receptor ACE2, a component of the renin–angiotensin system. MAIN BODY OF THE ABSTRACT: Symptoms of COVID-19 varies from patient to patient. It is all about the immunity and health status of the individual that decides the severity of the disease. The review focuses on the significant and often prevailing factors, those that influence the lung function. The factors that compromise the lung functions which may prepare the ground for severe COVID-19 infection are interestingly looked into. Focus was more on air pollution and cigarette smoke. SHORT CONCLUSION: The fact that the forested areas across the world show very low COVID-19 infection rate suggests that we are in need of the “Clean Air” on the fiftieth anniversary of World Earth Day. As many policies are implemented worldwide to protect from SARS-CoV-2, one simple remedy that we forgot was clean air can save lives. SARS-CoV-2 infects our lungs, and air pollution makes us more susceptible. In this crucial situation, the focus is only on the main threat; all other conditions are only in words to console the situation.