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To what extent do blood groups affect the course of various diseases? Doctors are embarking on a new path, especially important for the fight against coronavirus, reports Deutsche Welle.
It is not the first time that scientists have established a link between blood type and the course of a certain disease. In malaria, for example, it has been shown that people with blood type 0 rarely get seriously ill. And among plague patients, patients with blood group A have the best chances.
In some patients, the coronavirus is very mild. However, others enter the intensive care unit, need special therapy and breathing, and the most severe cases end in death. Now, two scientific studies are finding out what causes these differences.
In June, German and Norwegian scientists discovered that blood type may be key in the course of the COVID-19 disease. They studied 1,610 patients from Italy and Spain in whom the disease caused respiratory arrest (some of these patients never survived). DNA samples were taken from this group and compared with blood samples from 2,205 healthy people. The results were published in June in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
Zero blood type is the most favorable. The researchers found that patients with blood group A (43 percent of people) are at particular risk for serious illness. They are up to twice as likely to have to breathe as people with blood type 0 (41 percent of the population). With a zero blood type, the risk of serious disease is minimal. Blood groups B and AB they occupy an intermediate position, but they are not as common as A and 0.
Several other similar studies have been conducted since June, confirming the findings of German and Norwegian scientists. The results of a study that reached the same conclusions were published on October 14 in the specialized edition Blood Advances. They were also confirmed by a series of tests conducted at the Medical University of Graz, Austria. And the final imposition of these conclusions would help a lot in the development of pharmacological therapies.
Researchers have long focused solely on risk factors in coronavirus-infected patients. It is well known that the elderly and people with certain prior illnesses are particularly at risk. Much effort has gone into investigating whether smokers, for example, are at higher risk than non-smokers. Here, with the new results of the alleged connection between blood groups and the course of the disease, doctors embark on an important new path.
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