New Delhi: Blood groups A, B and Rh+ are more disposed to COVID-19 infection, while blood groups O, AB and Rh- are at a significantly lower risk of the infection, shows a study.
The study by Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital was conducted on 2,586 COVID-19 positive patients who were admitted to the hospital from April 8 2020 to October 4 2020. The findings were published in the November 21 issue of Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, The Indian Express reported.
“Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is a new virus, and it is unclear whether blood groups have any impact on Covid-19 risk or progression. Therefore, we investigated the association of ABO and Rh blood group with Covid-19 susceptibility, prognosis, recovery time, and mortality in this study,” Dr. Rashmi Rana, Consultant, Department of Research was quoted as saying.
“We also found that male patients with blood group B are more prone to Covid-19 than female patients with the same blood group and blood group AB was observed to be more susceptible to infection in patients with age group ≤ 60 years,” Dr. Vivek Ranjan, Co-author and Chairperson, Department of Blood Transfusion was quoted as saying by TIE.
However, the paper says that they found no association between blood groups and susceptibility to the severity of disease and mortality. It did find that blood groups A and Rh+ types are associated with a decrease in recovery period while blood groups O and Rh- are associated with an increase in recovery.
However, the study concludes by stating that “ …the ABO and/or Rh blood groups may not be responsible for this association, as these may indicate an unexplored underlying factor like comorbidity. Therefore, larger, multicenter, and prospective studies are needed to ascertain the relationship between blood groups and SARS-CoV-2.”
