Even though smoking causes respiratory illness, the study has indicated that smokers may be less prone to the virus.
A nationwide survey carried out by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has revealed that smokers and vegetarians are at minimal risk of getting infected from COVID-19.
The pan-India serosurvey conducted by the CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) states that people with blood type 'O' are also less likely to be at risk of contracting the virus.
To find out the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, CSIR took samples of 10,427 adult individuals working in the laboratory of its 40 institutes and their family members who participated in the research voluntarily.
The study revealed that of the 10,427 adults, 1,058 (10.14%) had antibodies against COVID-19.
The study found that higher seropositivity was found for those using public transport and with occupational responsibilities such as security, housekeeping personnel, non-smokers, and non-vegetarians.
"Use of private transport, lower-exposure occupations, smoking, vegetarianism, and 'A' or 'O' blood groups appeared to be protective, using seropositivity as a surrogate for infection," the paper added.
It may be noted that previous studies have warned smokers to stop the usage of tobacco to prevent severe symptoms of the deadly virus. However, this study has established that smokers are immune to COVID-19. Even though smoking causes respiratory illness, the study has indicated that smokers may be less prone to the virus.
A repeat sampling of 35 individuals, at six months, revealed declining antibody levels while the neutralizing antibody remained stable compared to three months." said Shantanu Sengupta, senior scientist at IGIB and one of the co-authors of the paper.
He further added, However, both the normal antibody as well as the neutralizing antibody were much above the required threshold,
"A follow up on 346 seropositive individuals among the samples after three months revealed 'stable' to 'higher' antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2, but declining plasma activity for neutralizing the virus," the study noted.
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