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Compiled by Zakiyah Ebrahim
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Health24
16 Oct 2020, 04:45
- Your blood type can predict how badly you will be affected by Covid-19, should you get an infection.
- This is according to two recently published studies.
- The findings are based on data from patients from Denmark and Vancouver, Canada.
People with blood type O are less likely to be infected with Covid-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, according to two new studies published in the journal. Blood advances.
They are also at a lower risk of severe Covid-19 outcomes, such as organ failure and even death.
Scientists have been investigating a potential link between blood type and vulnerability to Covid-19 for many months, and this latest evidence supports earlier findings.
A pre-print study published in March this year suggested that people with type A blood have a higher risk of acquiring Covid-19 compared to non-A blood groups, while another study published in June found that blood type O appeared to be more resistant against Covid -19 infection.
First study: Denmark
In this study, the researchers analyzed data from a Danish health registry that included more than 473,000 patients who were infected with Covid-19 between February 27, 2020 and July 30, 2020. After controlling for certain factors, they found fewer patients with blood type O, compared to patients with blood groups A, B and AB.
The researchers also note that they found no significant difference in infection rate between blood types A, B, and AB.
They also controlled for ethnicity, as blood group distributions differ between ethnic groups, and they maintained that fewer people with blood type O tested positive for Covid-19.
“It is very important to consider the appropriate control group because the prevalence of blood type can vary considerably in different ethnic groups and different countries,” said study author Torben Barington, MD, of the University Hospital of Odense and the University of the South of Denmark.
“We have the advantage of having a strong control group: Denmark is a small, ethnically homogeneous country, with a public health system and a central registry of laboratory data, so our control is population-based, which gives our findings a solid foundation. “
Independent Study: Canada
The researchers in this study found that Covid-19 patients with blood groups A and AB had an increased risk of severe clinical outcomes, compared to patients with blood groups O or B.
In this study, researchers investigated data from 95 seriously ill patients, hospitalized with Covid-19 in Vancouver, Canada, who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) between March 1, 2020 and April 28, 2020. .
A total of 38 patients had blood types A or AB, and 57 had blood types O or B.
They wrote that patients with blood groups A or AB were more likely to require mechanical ventilation (34, or 84%) compared to those with blood groups O or B (35, or 61%), which means that their risk of injury pulmonary by Covid -19 was higher.
More than this, the research team also found that more of these patients required dialysis for kidney failure.
The researchers also wrote that their study findings are consistent with a recent study of 1,980 Covid-19 patients that also demonstrated a link between ABO blood type and disease severity.
However, the authors of both studies point to several limitations that deserve consideration and suggest further research to confirm these findings and improve scientists’ understanding of the association of blood type with Covid-19 severity.
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Image: Getty / EyeEm
