Head for the hills! Scientists suggest coronavirus may suffer from altitude sickness

A new study has suggested that people living at high altitude are more resistant to the novel coronavirus than those who live closer to sea level.

Researchers took epidemiological data from Tibet, Bolivia and Ecuador and found that Tibet's infection rate was "drastically" lower than that of neighbouring lowland China. In the Bolivian Andes, the rate was three times lower than in the rest of the country and four times lower in the Ecuadorian Andes compared the rest of Ecuador.

Bolivia’s capital La Paz, located 3,640 metres above sea level, has so far recorded 410 cases and 24 deaths. By contrast, Santa Cruz and the surrounding area, located about 400 metres above sea level, has recorded 4,888 cases and 135 deaths, approximately two-thirds of all Bolivia’s cases and half of the deaths. This is despite the fact that only 15 per cent of the population live in the region.

In Cusco, a city of 420,000 in Peru that serves as the gateway to Machu Picchu, there were three deaths between March 23 and April 3, the date Peru entered lockdown. Those three fatalities were all tourists. Since that day, not a single fatality has been recorded in Cusco, even as the virus has claimed 4,000 lives nationally.

The research has prompted those living in the Andes to say coronavirus suffers from “soroche”, meaning altitude sickness.

One suggested reason for this is that those living at high altitude have developed a resilience to low levels of oxygen in their bloodstream, one potentially fatal symptom caused by Covid-19. This is a well-known medical condition, known as hypoxia. Mountain climbers often suffer from hypoxia if they are not acclimated to lower levels of oxygen.

Gustavo Zubeita-Calleja, one of the study’s authors, said to the FT: “At sea-level, when people get coronavirus and their lungs get destroyed, it’s as if they are climbing Mount Everest in just a couple of days without oxygen.

“The low rate of infection in Bolivia’s high-altitude population is remarkable and clearly does not follow the often exponential infection rates reported in many countries.”

However, scientists have cautioned against leaping to conclusions, stating that there is still little known about the virus. Factors such as demographics, health variables and even UV light could all affect how the virus interacts with humans.

Sceptics also point to exceptions to this supposed rule. Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is located 2,644 metres above sea level. It is home to about 20 per cent of the nation’s population, yet it is struggling with more than one-third of all recorded cases.