@article{MRA, author = {Natalia Zubieta-DeUrioste and Christian Arias-Reyes and Lida Sanchez and Nestor Armijo-Subieta and Alfredo Merino-Luna and Ivan Solarte and Raffo Escalante-Kanashiro and Jose Carmona-Suazo and Enrique Maravi Poma and Rosalinda Jimenez-Aguilar and Jose Calle-Aracena and Alberto Lopez-Bascope and Roberto Vera and Rafaela Zubieta-DeUrioste and Ninoska Rossel and Yeshua Peña-Y-Lilio and Gary Chambi-Quilla and Luis Herrera-Leon and Santiago Garrido-Salazar and Francisco Villacorta Cordova and Fausto Vinicio Maldonado Coronel and Elisabeth Deindl and Ricki Sheldon and Roberto Accinelli and Edith Schneider-Gasser and Jorge Soliz and Gustavo Zubieta-Calleja}, title = { COVID-19 Mortality Is Attenuated at High Tropical and Subtropical Altitude: An Observational Study of a Database Covering Five Latin American Countries}, journal = {Medical Research Archives}, volume = {11}, number = {8}, year = {2023}, keywords = {}, abstract = {The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-COV-2 virus, has had devastating consequences worldwide. Remarkably, the incidence, virus transmission capacity, and severity of COVID-19 have been reported to be significantly decreased in high-altitude human populations. The clinical significance of these findings is enormous, as they suggest that permanent inhabitants of high altitudes have developed adaptive protective changes against certain pathologies. However, these observations have been overshadowed by contradictory reports on the COVID-19 mortality rate at high altitude, ascribed to low population densities. These interpretations, however, fail to consider that the environmental conditions of high-altitude regions of the temperate and tropical geographical zones are radically different from each other. Contrary to common thought, the conditions of high-altitude areas of countries within the tropical zone are so benign that they have favored the growth and development of densely populated cities. In this work, we use data from a COVID-19 database covering five Latin American countries in the tropical and subtropical geographic zone that corresponded to the period between the start of the pandemic and the end of 2020, when no vaccine was yet available. Our results reveal that residing above 1,000 m in tropical countries was a protective factor against COVID-19 mortality. Interestingly, this protective effect was independent of population size. The findings presented here, and those from other similar studies, substantiate the need for more research to reveal the secrets of the physiology of permanent high-altitude residents. In conclusion, our findings clearly demonstrate that the high-altitude environment in tropical and subtropical geographic zones significantly contributes to the decreased mortality impact of the SARS-COV-2 virus in high-altitude-exposed populations.}, issn = {2375-1924}, doi = {10.18103/mra.v11i8.4299}, url = {https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/4299} }