Previous version:
- Introduction:
I
assume that there is a correlation between severe COVID-19 and measles
infection.
Measles
virus has the ability to damage the immune memory, what is known as
"immune amnesia".
Later
on, I will refer to an unknown disease as disease X.
- Assumption:
The
severe COVID-19 might be related to the following course of event:
o Previous
infection with the disease X which has an antigen similar to the COVID-19.
o Measles
infection.
- The reasons for this assumption:
a. By
looking at the statistics on the coronavirus gather with my basic knowledge
about measles I can see that:
1) The
older population showed significantly more severe illness and mortality rates
than the rest of the population (we assume that before ~1970 most of the people
were infected with measles in some stage in their life, from this reason I
suspect the measles as the main factor).
2) Children
seem to be escaping from the severe effect of the coronavirus (seems that measles
alone cannot be the only factor for this because although we have a vaccine for
this epidemic, we still having a measles outbreaks from time to time, which is
why I assume there is another factor involved, the disease X. The probability
to have this disease before having a measles grows over the years).
b. In
biological terms, I can only raise a question that related to my assumption
(not only because of my lack of knowledge, but also because there are still
questions regarding to these topics):
1) The
following article [https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/25417/20200422/29-percent-similarity-between-coronavirus-rubella-virus-help-mmr-vaccine.htm]
suggest that because of similarity between rubella antibodies and COVID-19,
previous infection from rubella could protect people from coronavirus (this
make the rubella a possible X disease).
2) From
my understanding the "immune amnesia" phenomenon caused by the
measles infection is not fully understood. In 2018 an experiment is made to
study about this phenomenon by counting the variety of antibodies in children
before and after measles outbreak [https://rdcu.be/b3ZsO].
The researches quote as saying "...children could rebuild the immunity
they had lost, but only by being exposed to infections again, or being
vaccinated." [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/health/measles-vaccine-immune-system.html]
I don't know if this specific conclusion (interpretation) is acceptable by the
science community (there is no recommendation for re-vaccination). But it may suggest
that the "immune amnesia" may continue for many years.
All these points raise the questions:
o for
a patient that had a rubella first and then measles. What do we know about
their immune system and specially what we expect from their T cells that
were originally cloned to protect against rubella?
o In
more general aspect, could the measles infection violate the balance between
the immune system elements or damaged the elements, leaving the immune system
in a vulnerable state in exposure to an antigen similar to another known
antigen before the measles?
- Contradict the assumption:
It
is easier to contradict the assumption than to approve it (before continuing
with this preliminary approach) by:
Investigate
the severe coronavirus patients about previous measles vaccination/ infection (and what was
the severe expressions). If they had measles the question about being
vaccinated or exposed to rubella infection might help for further
investigation. The focus should be on the young population (that not expected
to have measles and we have their medical history).
- Contact
yaron.pharhi@gmail.com