A Review of the Role of Pollen in COVID-19 Infection

Nur Sabrina Idrose, Jingwen Zhang, Caroline J. Lodge, Bircan Erbas, Jo A. Douglass, Dinh S. Bui and Shyamali C. Dharmage ()
Additional contact information
Nur Sabrina Idrose: Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia
Jingwen Zhang: Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia
Caroline J. Lodge: Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia
Bircan Erbas: School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
Jo A. Douglass: Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC 3050, Australia
Dinh S. Bui: Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia
Shyamali C. Dharmage: Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 10, 1-9

Abstract: There is current interest in the role of ambient pollen in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) infection risk. The aim of this review is to summarise studies published up until January 2023 investigating the relationship between airborne pollen and the risk of COVID-19 infection. We found conflicting evidence, with some studies showing that pollen may increase the risk of COVID-19 infection by acting as a carrier, while others showed that pollen may reduce the risk by acting as an inhibiting factor. A few studies reported no evidence of an association between pollen and the risk of infection. A major limiting factor of this research is not being able to determine whether pollen contributed to the susceptibility to infection or just the expression of symptoms. Hence, more research is needed to better understand this highly complex relationship. Future investigations should consider individual and sociodemographic factors as potential effect modifiers when investigating these associations. This knowledge will help to identify targeted interventions.

Keywords: pollen; COVID-19; virus infection; SARS-CoV-2; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/10/5805/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/10/5805/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:10:p:5805-:d:1145588

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().