Scientists link high mortality rate of Coronavirus in northern Italy to air pollution

The environmental scientists and healthcare researchers have reportedly linked the high COVID-19 mortality in the northern region of Italy with air pollution. In the research published in the scientific journal Environmental Pollution, scientists demonstrated the link between the 12 per cent mortality rate in the Lombardy and Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy with a higher level of air pollution, which may have led to complications in health of the patients. 

According to a scientist, Dario Caro from the Department of Environmental Science from Aarhus University in Denmark, and health researchers Bruno Frediani and Dr. Edoardo Conticini from the University of Siena in Italy, several underlying factors such as prolonged exposure to the air pollution particulate, weakened the immunity system of patients with the COVID-19 in the region. Speaking to the media, Caro said that many factors other than just the disease had altered the course of patients' illness. He said that there have been studies to find the links and explanations of the mortality rate variation across different countries in the world.  

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The virus had long arrived in Italy

Caro emphasized that the research stated that important co-factors such as the old age of the Italian population, various differences in the Italian regional health systems, the capacity of ICUs and the parameters to report the infection and deaths have a pivotal role in the lethality of the COVID-19 disease. The data accumulated via NASA Aura satellite reportedly demonstrated extremely high levels of air pollution across the two northern regions with the highest death toll. 

According to Flavia Riccardo, a researcher in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health, the virus had long arrived in Italy and was circulating way before the government discovered the first case, a media outlet reported. This happened around the time when the country was facing a peak of influenza, and citizens were showing influenza symptoms, he added. 

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