Research provides further evidence that blood type (also known as blood group) may play a role in susceptibility to infection and the likelihood of serious complications of the disease. The reasons for this link are not clear and what effect it has on patients, if any, requires further research to say.
A Danish study found that 473,654 people tested for Covid-19, with only 38.4% testing positive for blood type O – however, in the group of 2.2 million people not tested, that blood type is 41.7%. Population.
In another study, researchers in Canada found that in 95 patients critically ill with Covid-19, blood type A or AB – 84% – required mechanical ventilation compared to patients with blood group O or B, which was 61%.
The Canadian study also found that people with blood type A or AB had to stay longer in the Intensive Care Unit, which was an average of 13.5 days, compared to people with blood group O or B who had a nine-day average.
“As a clinician … it’s behind my brain when I look at patients and straighten them out. But in terms of a definite marker we need to explore many areas of jurisdiction that show the same area,” said Dr. M. Mipinder Sekhon. Was. , Intensive care physician at Vancouver General Hospital and author of the Canadian study.
Sekhon, who is a clinical assistant professor at the British University’s Department of Critical Care Medicine and the Department of Medicine, added: Colombia.
“If it’s a blood type, you don’t have to start panicking. And if you’re a blood type, you’re not free to go to pubs and bars.”
No need to worry
It makes little difference to most people’s daily lives unless you have a blood transfusion. A senior author of the Danish paper and a clinical professor at Odense University Hospital Spital and the University of Southern Denmark, Dr. “People should be unsure about the link between blood type and Covid-19,” Torben told Bering.
“We don’t know if this group O has any kind of protection, or if it has some kind of vulnerability in other blood groups,” he said.
“I think there is a scientific interest in this, and when we find out what the mechanism is, we have been able to actively use it that way in terms of treatment.”
In the Danish study, researchers analyzed data on Danish individuals tested between February 27 and July 30, and compared the distribution of blood types among those with data from people who had not been examined. They found that blood type was not a risk factor for hospitalization or death from Covid-19.
Both studies were published in the journal Blood Advances.
While there are many theories, researchers do not yet know what the link between the different blood groups and Covid-19 can explain.
Sekhon said it could be explained by people with blood type O, as the key clotting factor is less which reduces their risk of coagulation problems in the blood. Clotting has been a major driver of Covid-19 intensity.
Other potential revelations include blood group antigens and how they affect the production of antibodies fighting infection. Or it may be linked to genes associated with blood types and its effect on receptors in the immune system.
“It’s a repetitive, interesting scientific observation that really guarantees more mechanical work,” he said.
‘Important research question’
The findings of two new studies provide “more variable evidence that blood type may play a role in a person’s susceptibility to covid infection and the likelihood of severe covid-1 of contagion,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, two senior studies. At the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in Baltimore, both of which were not involved in the study.
Previous genetic studies, combined with two new studies of blood advances, “suggest that this is a real phenomenon we are seeing,” Adalja said, whose work focuses on infectious disease.
“While we’re not quite up to the issue, it’s a clear indicator, and we haven’t seen anything inconsistent with this. The same pattern is emerging with blood type tendencies that are also blood,” Adalaja said.
Adalja said blood types and susceptibility to various infections have been studied earlier in the medical literature. For example, research suggests that people with blood type O do not appear to be more susceptible to rovirus infections.
Speaking of the novel coronavirus that caused Covid-19, “To be able to say for sure how this is happening, we need to figure out the mechanism and understand it at the molecular level – that this is really O blood type and not something O blood. Kind of that kind of track, ”Adalaja said.
“We’re starting to see enough now that I think answering is an important research question,” he said. “There’s more science to do here, but I think there’s more evidence to gather for this hypothesis.”
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