Last week Prof Tobias Rinke de Wit, Director Research JLI, was on Dutch television program NTR: Atlas discussing his ongoing COVID-19 work in Africa.
When the epidemic emerged on the continent in April 2020, the take-off was relatively slow and the first wave came up only in July-August, when things calmed down in Europe. Today, Africa is in a clear second wave, in at least 44 of its countries, as reported by CDC-Africa:
The COVID-19 epidemic in Africa reminded Tobias of his past work in Ethiopia on the HIV epidemic, with Ethiopian friend and colleague, Dr Dawit Wolday. Together they developed the ‘parasites protect against COVID’ hypothesis, which when submitted early May was not considered publishable by a reputable journal. Nevertheless, Tobias and Dawit continued their work, supported by a Joep Lange Institute pioneering grant and herewith present sound evidence: human parasites and COVID-19 symptoms do indeed not go together!
Download the full research paper here:
Effect of co-infection with parasites on severity of COVID-19
Watch the news report here: (IN DUTCH)
