A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes
Abstract SARS-CoV-2 has spread throughout the world, including areas located at high or very high altitudes. There is a debate about the role of high altitude hypoxia on viral transmission, incidence, and COVID-19 related mortality. This is the first comparison of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across elevat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20516-w |
| _version_ | 1811182285105397760 |
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| author | Esteban Ortiz-Prado Raul Fernandez-Naranjo Jorge Eduardo Vásconez Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta Diana Morales-Jadan Ismar A. Rivera-Olivero Tannya Lozada Gines Viscor Miguel Angel Garcia-Bereguiain The UDLA-COVID-19 team |
| author_facet | Esteban Ortiz-Prado Raul Fernandez-Naranjo Jorge Eduardo Vásconez Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta Diana Morales-Jadan Ismar A. Rivera-Olivero Tannya Lozada Gines Viscor Miguel Angel Garcia-Bereguiain The UDLA-COVID-19 team |
| author_sort | Esteban Ortiz-Prado |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract SARS-CoV-2 has spread throughout the world, including areas located at high or very high altitudes. There is a debate about the role of high altitude hypoxia on viral transmission, incidence, and COVID-19 related mortality. This is the first comparison of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across elevations ranging from 0 to 4300 m. To describe the SARS-CoV-2 viral load across samples coming from 62 cities located at low, moderate, high, and very high altitudes in Ecuador. An observational analysis of viral loads among nasopharyngeal swap samples coming from a cohort of 4929 patients with a RT-qPCR test positive for SARS-CoV-2. The relationship between high and low altitude only considering our sample of 4929 persons is equal in both cases and not significative (p-value 0.19). In the case of low altitude, adding the sex variable to the analysis, it was possible to find a significative difference between men and women (p-value < 0.05). Considering initially sex and then altitude, it was possible to find a significative difference between high and low altitude for men (p-value 0.05). There is not enough evidence to state that viral load is affected directly by altitude range but adding a new variable as sex in the analysis shows that the presence of new variables influences the relationship of altitude range and viral load. There is no evidence that viral loads (Ct and copies/ml) differ at low or high altitude. Using sex as a co-factor, we found that men have higher viral loads than women at low and moderate altitude locations, while living at high altitude, no differences were found. When Ct values were aggregated by low, moderate, and high viral load, we found no significant differences when sex was excluded from the analysis. We conclude that viral load is not directly affected by altitude, but COVID-19 incidence and mortality are rather affected by socio-demographic and idiosyncratic dynamics. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:30:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-86cc175e69954c65a292e640b91e52be |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:30:18Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-86cc175e69954c65a292e640b91e52be2022-12-22T04:31:54ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-10-0112111210.1038/s41598-022-20516-wA comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudesEsteban Ortiz-Prado0Raul Fernandez-Naranjo1Jorge Eduardo Vásconez2Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta3Diana Morales-Jadan4Ismar A. Rivera-Olivero5Tannya Lozada6Gines Viscor7Miguel Angel Garcia-Bereguiain8The UDLA-COVID-19 team9One Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Las AmericasOne Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Las AmericasOne Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Las AmericasOne Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Las AmericasDecanato de Investigación y Vinculación, Universidad de Las AmericasOne Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Las AmericasFacultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Latina de Costa RicaDepartment of Cell Biology, Physiology, and Immunology of the Faculty of Biology, Universitat de BarcelonaOne Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Las AmericasDecanato de Investigación y Vinculación, Universidad de Las AmericasAbstract SARS-CoV-2 has spread throughout the world, including areas located at high or very high altitudes. There is a debate about the role of high altitude hypoxia on viral transmission, incidence, and COVID-19 related mortality. This is the first comparison of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across elevations ranging from 0 to 4300 m. To describe the SARS-CoV-2 viral load across samples coming from 62 cities located at low, moderate, high, and very high altitudes in Ecuador. An observational analysis of viral loads among nasopharyngeal swap samples coming from a cohort of 4929 patients with a RT-qPCR test positive for SARS-CoV-2. The relationship between high and low altitude only considering our sample of 4929 persons is equal in both cases and not significative (p-value 0.19). In the case of low altitude, adding the sex variable to the analysis, it was possible to find a significative difference between men and women (p-value < 0.05). Considering initially sex and then altitude, it was possible to find a significative difference between high and low altitude for men (p-value 0.05). There is not enough evidence to state that viral load is affected directly by altitude range but adding a new variable as sex in the analysis shows that the presence of new variables influences the relationship of altitude range and viral load. There is no evidence that viral loads (Ct and copies/ml) differ at low or high altitude. Using sex as a co-factor, we found that men have higher viral loads than women at low and moderate altitude locations, while living at high altitude, no differences were found. When Ct values were aggregated by low, moderate, and high viral load, we found no significant differences when sex was excluded from the analysis. We conclude that viral load is not directly affected by altitude, but COVID-19 incidence and mortality are rather affected by socio-demographic and idiosyncratic dynamics.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20516-w |
| spellingShingle | Esteban Ortiz-Prado Raul Fernandez-Naranjo Jorge Eduardo Vásconez Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta Diana Morales-Jadan Ismar A. Rivera-Olivero Tannya Lozada Gines Viscor Miguel Angel Garcia-Bereguiain The UDLA-COVID-19 team A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes Scientific Reports |
| title | A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes |
| title_full | A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes |
| title_fullStr | A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes |
| title_full_unstemmed | A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes |
| title_short | A comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral load across different altitudes |
| title_sort | comparative analysis of sars cov 2 viral load across different altitudes |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20516-w |
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