IDSI FAB member Dr. Daniel Parker, assistant professor in the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine, tells Reuters Health, “As COVID-19 makes its way through (tropical and subtropical) parts of the world, there will definitely be co-infections with both SARS-CoV-2 and helminths.” “Co-infections can lead to complicated disease outcomes,” he said by email. Helminths are macroparasites, and the immune system can’t deal with them the way it deals with microparasites – i.e., through ingestion by phagocytic cells, he explained.
