In an exclusive interview with Reuters, they analyzed the COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil and found a link between the spread of the virus and the mosquito-transmitted illness.
Dr Miguel Nicolelis, senior author of the Duke School of Medicine Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, said the team compared the geographic distribution of coronavirus cases with the spread of dengue in 2019 and 2020.
'This striking finding raises the intriguing possibility of an immunological cross-reactivity between dengue's Flavivirus serotypes and SARS-CoV-2,' the authors wrote, referring to dengue antibodies and the coronavirus.
'If proven correct, this hypothesis could mean that dengue infection or immunization with an efficacious and safe dengue vaccine could produce some level of immunological protection' against the coronavirus.
Nicolelis told Reuters the results are particularly interesting because previous studies have shown that people with dengue antibodies in their blood can test falsely positive for COVID-19 antibodies even if they have never been infected by the coronavirus.
'This indicates that there is an immunological interaction between two viruses that nobody could have expected, because the two viruses are from completely different families,' Nicolelis said.
This may explain why the COVID-19 cases in Africa - where Malaria is prevalent - is low.
However, he added that further studies are needed to prove the connection.
Dengue fever is caused by the Dengue virus, which is transmitted by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Most people with Dengue virus experience few to no symptoms but those who develop symptoms likely to suffer from muscle or joint pain, headache, a high fever, nausea and vomiting.
Dengue virus has no treatment and most symptoms resolve after a week.
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