Hepatitis A susceptibility parallels high COVID-19 mortality

BACKGROUND/AIM: COVID-19 has become the biggest health problem of this century. It has been hypothesized that immunity against hepatitis A virus (HAV) may provide protection from COVID- 19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: As of 10June 2020, the infection had spread to 213 countries, with 7.3 million people infected and 413,733 dead. This data was combined with the World Health Organization susceptibility classification on the worldwide prevalence of HAV, and the relationship between HAV susceptibility and COVID-19 mortality were analyzed. RESULTS: When the data from 213 countries were analyzed, it was found that there was a significant increasing trend in COVID-19 mortality rates by HAV susceptibility (P <0.001). Using a cut-off of 200/million population, the mortality risk associated with living in a more susceptible country (medium/high) was 27.8 times higher (95% CI for OR: 3.6–213.2) CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that, despite confounding factors in different countries, hepatitis A susceptibility of the population may have been correlated with COVID-19 mortality. This observation needs to be confirmed by further studies.