Article originally published on Spotlight
Some studies have suggested there may be a link between people’s vitamin D levels and COVID-19 outcomes, but leading local experts say there is little evidence to support this.
“For people to be sufficient [in vitamin D] is extremely important, but it’s a completely different issue than [potentially] using vitamin D as a short-term treatment [for COVID-19],” says Professor Marjanne Senekal, Professor in Nutrition Science in the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town. “Whether we want to correct deficiencies or whether deficiencies have played some other role in this situation, [for] the evidence at this stage people are using what they have which is looking at the vitamin D status of patients retrospectively,” she says.
According to Senekal, there is no evidence to make a recommendation that any amount of vitamin D could treat or prevent COVID-19.