(Ph.d Scholar Clinical Biochemistry)
Clinical Biochemist.
Ex. Assistant professor Biochemistry (Faculty of Allied Health sciences, Minhaj university Lahore)
Ex. Demonstrator Biochemistry (Allama iqbal Medical college, Lahore)
Why Indian and Pak pupulations responded differently to COVID-19??
Interestingly, India and Pakistan are historically linked to each other through culture, people-to-people contact and sharing ethnically identical populations on both sides of the borders, then why pupulations of both countries responded differently to COVID19. “India has raced up the world ranking for countries badly hit by the new coronavirus while Pakistan is heading in the other direction”.
There could be many contributing factors, but in my personal opinion following two reasons are significant to evaluate further through scientific means.
1: Majority of Pakistani population is non-alcoholic and MeatEater (Pak= 13kg/person/year vs India = 3kg/person/year) which is the bedrock of a healthy immune response. For instance, Meat has excellent levels of most of the vitamins that strengthen the immune system such as vitamin B1 and vitamin B12, whose deficiency causes a reduction in the number of lymphocytes, but also chromium, a micronutrient presents in trace amounts in our body that stimulates immune defences and resistance to infections such as SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19.
2: Furthermore, Pakistan is a muslim majority country (95% muslim population), where Islamic law requires Muslims to ritually purify their body before praying five times a day. Indeed, in scientific terms these practices contain physical benefits, such as to maintain good personal hygiene. This might have contributed to reduced levels of COVID19 transmission in Pakistani population.
