People with blood type O may have a lower risk of COVID-19 infection, a serious illness.Coronavirus

According to two published studies, people with blood group O are less vulnerable to COVID-19 and may be less likely to become severely ill. Experts say further research is needed.

This study provides further evidence that blood types (also known as blood types) can play a role in a person’s susceptibility to infection and the likelihood of severe seizures of the disease. The reason for this link is unclear, and further research is needed to say how it affects patients, if any.

Research adds to growing evidence

Support Philadelphia Tribune

Now, more than ever, the world needs credible reporting, but good journalism is not free. By contributing, support the country’s longest continuously published newspaper serving the African-American community.

help

According to a Danish study, only 38.4% of the 7,422 people who tested positive for COVID-19 had blood type O. However, in the untested group of 2.2 million people, their blood type accounted for 41.7% of the population.

In contrast, 44.4% of Group A are positive, while in Denmark’s wider population, blood type accounts for 42.4%.

In another study, Canadian researchers found a higher proportion of blood group A or AB (84%) of 95 patients with COVID-19 who were severely ill with blood group O or B (61%). %) Found that they needed a ventilator.

In a Canadian study, patients with blood group A or AB stayed in the intensive care unit longer and had a median of 13.5 days compared to patients with blood group O or B with a median of 9 days. I understand.

“As a clinician … it’s deep in my heart that I see and stratify patients, but the definitive markers need to be repeatedly investigated in many jurisdictions that show the same thing. “Yes,” said Dr. Mypinder Sekhon, an intensivist at Vancouver General Hospital and author of a Canadian study.

“I don’t think this will replace other risk factors of severity, such as age and comorbidities,” added Sekhon, a clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia School of Emergency and Critical Medicine and School of Medicine. Columbia.

“If you have blood type A, you don’t have to panic, and if you have blood type O, you can’t go to pubs or bars freely.”

Don’t worry

Most humans fall into one of four blood types: A, B, AB, or O. In the United States, the most common blood types are O and A.

Unless you have to do a blood transfusion, there is little difference in the daily lives of most people. Dr. Toben Barrington, lead author of the Danish paper and clinical professor at Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark, said that one should not be overly concerned about the association between blood type and COVID-19.

“I don’t know if this is some kind of protection for Group O or some kind of vulnerability in other blood types,” he said.

“I think this is of scientific interest. Knowing what the mechanism is, it could be used positively in some way for treatment.”

In a Danish study, researchers analyzed data on Danish individuals tested between February 27 and July 30, from people who had not been tested for blood group distribution among those people. Compared with the data. They found that blood type was not a risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalization or death.

Both studies were published in the journal Blood Advances.

There are several theories, but researchers do not yet know which mechanism can explain the link between different blood types and COVID-19.

Sekhon said people with blood type O can be explained by the fact that they have fewer major coagulation factors and are less likely to have problems with blood coagulation. Coagulation is a major contributor to the severity of COVID-19.

Other possible explanations include blood group antigens and how they affect the production of antibodies that fight infection. Alternatively, it may be related to blood group-related genes and their effects on receptors in the immune system.

“This is an interesting repetitive scientific observation and we really need more mechanical research,” he said.

“Important Research Question”

The results of two new studies provide “more convergent evidence that blood types can affect a person’s susceptibility to COVID infection and the likelihood of severe attacks of COVID-19.” Johns Hopkins University Health and Security Center in Baltimore. He was not involved in either study.

Another study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June, found genetic data for some COVID-19 patients and healthy people, and patients with type A blood were at increased risk of infection and of type O blood. Patients are at lower risk.

Earlier genetic research, coupled with two new studies from Blood Advances, “suggests that this is the real phenomenon we are seeing,” with a focus on emerging infectious diseases. Adalja said.

“It hasn’t been an ironclad warship yet, but it’s clearly suggestive and I haven’t seen anything inconsistent with it. The same pattern is emerging and the ABO blood group tends to stand out.” Said Adalja.

Adalja said blood types and their susceptibility to various infections were previously studied in the medical literature. For example, studies show that people with blood type O are more susceptible to norovirus infections.

Regarding the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, “We need to understand the mechanism and understand it at the molecular level so that we can say for sure how this is happening. This is actually type O. It’s like an O-shaped truck, “said Adalja.

“We’re starting to understand it now, so I think it’s an important research question to answer,” he said. “There is more science to be done here, but it seems to me that there is more evidence accumulated about this hypothesis.”