The first organism to get its genome fully mapped by Craig Venter is said to have been Haemophilus Influenzae (HI)
“This species was the first free-living organism to have its entire genomesequenced.[3]”
Incidentally this bacteria was thought to be responsible for the Spanish Flue before viruses were discovered
probably by reason of coinfection.
It can at times present scialic acid receptors on its outer membrane
https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/files/5264874/1639436.pdf
see figure
“Haemophilus influenzae, have an additional use for sialic acid in an immune evasion mechanism by adding Neu5Ac to their lipopolysaccharide (
7,
8), which provides increased survival in human serum (
9,
10)”
Having a scialic acid receptor where the acid is acquired from a human host
just like human cells having scialic acid receptors may render HI susceptible to transfection ?
The HI bacteria requires V factor and X factor that are provided by
streptococci
thus suggestive of a possible
co-evolution of Streptococcus And Haemophilus Influenzae and Sars-Cov-2 accessing HI’s cytoplasm.
With Sars-Cov-2 possibly replicating, evading immunity and evolving inside HI, similarly to bacterial plasmids
Bacterial proteases can cleave HA during co-infections
Interestingly, certain bacteria have been demonstrated to support HA
(Viral Haem Agglutinin)
activation either by secreting proteases that cleave HA or due to activation of cellular proteases and thereby may contribute to virus spread and enhanced pathogenicity.
Incidentally
At 1 mg/l, 100% of the strains of H. influenzae were inhibited by azithromycin compared with 16% with erythromycin and 5% with roxithromycin. Azithromycin exhibited a rapid bactericidal effect, with a 99.9% kill at 4 h. The MBC was equal to or up to four-times greater than the MIC
Conclusion:
If the above assumptions should prove correct then:
Haemophilus Influenzae should be looked into as a risk factor
in Covid-19
and Sars-Cov-2 blocked from evolving
new variants by convolution with HI
Which may be achieved by Azitromycin
Diagnostics could include testing for HI and treatment include Azitromycin