'IMMUNITY' AGAINST CORONAVIRUS FOR THOSE WITH BLOOD TYPE O?

 Filenews 21 October 2020

Two new studies, one from Denmark and one from Canada, show that people with blood group O are less likely to become ill with Covid-19 and experience severe symptoms, as opposed to those with blood group A and AB, who present an increased risk of being ill with severe clinical symptoms (e.g. developing complications in other organs) and needing admission to ICU and intubation.

These two studies were published in the journal Blood Advances of the American Society of Haematology and come to confirm results of previous studies, that – that is – the type of blood plays a role in both whether someone gets the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and how seriously they will get sick because of it.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Southern Denmark and the University Hospital of Odense, led by Dr. Torben Barrington, compared data from 473,000 people who had tested blood for coronavirus with blood data from 2.2 million people from the general population. The results of this comparison were that compared to the distribution of blood groups in the population of the country, proportionally fewer people with group O have Covid-19. This study found no significant differences in infection rates for groups A, B and AB.

The second study, conducted in Canada, led by Assistant Professor of Intensive Care, Dr Maipinder Shekhon of the University of British Columbia, examined data from 95 seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were being treated at Vancouver General Hospital. The final finding was that patients with group A or AB were more likely - compared to those in blood groups O and B - to need intubation due to more serious lung damage, and that they were more likely to need dialysis due to severe renal failure.

SOURCE: RES-IPA