This story is from November 30, 2020

25 in Karnataka lived through two pandemics

More than a century before Covid-19 crippled the world, the Spanish Flu of 1918 was described as the “pandemic of a lifetime”. While it was precisely an experience of a lifetime for most people, some who survived that scourge have been witness to the current pandemic that is sweeping across the globe.
25 in Karnataka lived through two pandemics
Bengaluru, with 11 such patients, has the highest share followed by Tumakuru (3), while Belagavi and Koppal have two each. The others are spread across Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapura, Koppal, Davanagere and Kodagu
BENGALURU: More than a century before Covid-19 crippled the world, the Spanish Flu of 1918 was described as the “pandemic of a lifetime”. While it was precisely an experience of a lifetime for most people, some who survived that scourge have been witness to the current pandemic that is sweeping across the globe.
Data accessed from the government of Karnataka shows that the state has at least 25 such patients — 12 women and 13 men — who witnessed the first pandemic and defied an infection from the second.
Remarkably, on both occasions, they were in the most vulnerable age groups.
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Dr Anoop Amarnath, geriatrician and member of the state’s Covid-19 critical care support group which oversees treatment for such patients, said: “We treated one woman from Chitradurga, who was more than 110-years-old. I think one factor that has worked with people in this group is the absence of comorbidities. This indicates that they are better at recovering from both communicable and non-communicable infections.”
Of the 60 centenarians infected by Covid-19 in Karnataka, 22 are aged exactly 100 years, while 13 are aged between 101 and 102. The remaining 25, including some as old as 116 and 119, have witnessed both the pandemics.
Of this latter group, 24 have already been discharged, and a 105-year-old patient, who tested positive on November 5, is still recovering from the disease. While it could not be immediately ascertained if any of these patients had also contracted the Spanish Flu, the fact that most of them were under 10 years means they were vulnerable to infection.

Amarnath added: “We also noticed that the infection in almost all of these people was mild. Another thing that could have helped them is what we call immunosenescence [gradual deterioration of immune system] which prevents excess response from the body’s immune system that could trigger other complications.”
Bengaluru, with 11 such patients, has the highest share followed by Tumakuru (3), while Belagavi and Koppal have two each. The others are spread across Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapura, Koppal, Davanagere and Kodagu.
Dr CN Manjunath, chairperson, Covid expert committee, said: “I think just like we have the obesity paradox [people are obese but without any other ailment that obesity usually causes], we can call this the 100-year paradox: There have been many cases where centenarians do not have any ailment associated with age. Even among Covid patients, you can see that most of them did not have comorbidities which helped their cause tremendously.”
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About the Author
Chethan Kumar

As a young democracy grows out of adolescence, its rolling out reels and reels of tales. If the first post office or a telephone connection paints one colour, the Stamp of a stock market scam or the ‘Jewel Thieves’ scandal paint yet another colour. If failure of a sounding rocket was a stepping stone, sending 104 satellites in one go was a podium. If farmer suicides are a bad climax, growing number of Unicorns are a grand entry. Chethan Kumar, Senior Assistant Editor, The Times of India, who alternates between the mundane goings-on of the hoi polloi and the wonder-filled worlds of scientists and scamsters, politicians and Jawans, feels: There’s always a story, one just has to find it.

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