Tasaduq Husain
Srinagar, May 6: Amid the growing fear that the pollen from poplar trees can act as a potent COVID-19 virus carrier, valley medical experts Thursday ruled out the chances saying that there is no evidence to prove that a cotton-like substance can transmit the infection to an individual.
Medical experts believe that the pollen coming from trees like Russian poplar trees won’t act as a carrier of the deadly Coronavirus even during the 2nd phase of the virus.
A well-known allergy expert, Dr Ghulam Hassan said that pollen leads to a similar cough but no fever which can be treated with some anti-allergy medicines while the fever is a viral infection these days due to COVID-19 virus.
Hassan said there is no evidence to prove that pollen from trees is potent to transmit virus since they are just a microscopic structure.
“Studies suggest that pollen is cotton coming from poplar trees while there is no study to prove that it can carry the virus on its surface and affect an individual,” he said.
The allergy expert said there is only one difference between infection and allergy which is, a viral infection causes fever and body ache while allergy has no such impact.
“We have tested the pollen last year after getting the chemical from America and Germany which depicted that there is the least common allergy in cotton here,” Dr. Gh Hassan maintained.
He said that the pollen from common grasses leads to allergies in the valley.
“Cutting down all the polar trees won’t find a solution. This can be normalised by immunotherapy since the pollen and dust mites enter even through ordinary masks while specially designed nano masks can prevent it,” Hassan maintained.
Meanwhile, Valley renowned Flu expert Dr. Nisar Ul Hassan who also heads Kashmir’s doctor’s body said that the virus particles (droplets) remain suspended in the air, and pollen from trees have nothing to do with it.
“They are not the vectors for the virions since it (Virus) remains suspended in air on its own the way pollen and other allergens remain. It doesn’t act as a carrier to transmit the virus,” Dr Nisar said.
