Allergy sufferers in particular have to struggle with pollen in spring.
Now researchers have published an amazing connection with the spread of the coronavirus.
Munich - Spring-like temperatures are currently attracting many people to the door again.
After the harsh lockdown winter, many citizens are likely to seek distraction in nature.
But a negative side effect of spring is inevitable this year: hay fever is already plaguing one or the other allergy sufferer.
As a study now also shows, a strong pollen count can even increase the corona risk.
Corona in Germany: Researchers publish amazing study results
If there is a lot of pollen in the outside air, the number of infections rises, reports an international team led by researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München in the specialist journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (“PNAS”).
For this reason, the infection rate in places without lockdown regulation increased by an average of four percent if the number of pollen in the air increased by 100 per cubic meter.
In some German cities during the study period up to 500 pollen per cubic meter were found per day - the infection rates rose by more than 20 percent.
According to the study, there is also an explanation for the spread: When pollen flies, the body's defenses react to viruses in the respiratory tract in a weakened form.
The body then produces, among other things, fewer so-called antiviral interferons.
Corona in Germany: Doctors are investigating the phenomenon in 31 countries
The daily infection rates correlated with the pollen count in countries with and without lockdown.
If lockdown rules applied in the areas examined, the number of infections was halved on average with a comparable pollen concentration in the air.
The doctors had analyzed data on pollen exposure and Sars-CoV-2 infection rates from 130 regions in 31 countries on five continents.
They also took into account demographic factors and environmental conditions, including temperature, humidity, population density and the degree of lockdown.