Those with vitamin D deficiency are vulnerable to coronavirus infection, researchers have said in their study published in journal JAMA Network Open.

“Vitamin D is important to the function of the immune system and vitamin D supplements have previously been shown to lower the risk of viral respiratory tract infections,” said David Meltzer, MD, PhD, Chief of Hospital Medicine at UChicago Medicine and lead author of the study. “Our statistical analysis suggests this may be true for the Covid-19 infection.”

The research team looked at 489 UChicago Medicine patients whose vitamin D level was measured within a year before being tested for Covid-19. Patients who had vitamin D deficiency (less than 20ng/ml) that was not treated were almost twice as likely to test positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus compared to patients who had sufficient levels of the vitamin.

“Understanding whether treating Vitamin D deficiency changes COVID-19 risk could be of great importance locally, nationally and globally,” Meltzer said. “Vitamin D is inexpensive, generally very safe to take, and can be widely scaled.”

Meltzer and his team emphasize the importance of experimental studies to determine whether vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk, and potentially severity, of COVID-19.

Doctors from the Delhi-based All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr  P Aparna, Dr S Muthathal, Dr Baridalyne Nongkynrih, Dr and Dr Sanjeev Kumar Gupta too in their study in 2018 published in journal PubMed pointed out that the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in India ranged from 40 per cent to 99 per cent.

“We need to create awareness among the public and healthcare providers about the importance of Vitamin D. Our Indian diet generally fails to satisfy the daily requirement of Vitamin D for a normal adult.

“This stresses on the need for fortifying various food with Vitamin D, through the national programmes.”