Study Discovers Blood Types with Higher Risk for Coronavirus

Health

If you’ve been following the daily coronavirus briefings from the White House, then you’re already aware that the most vulnerable group for contracting the deadly virus are seniors followed by individuals with a host of underlined medical issues that affect the immune system, such as diabetes, heart disease and respiratory issues like emphysema.

However, a new study coming out of Beijing found that individuals with blood type “A” may be more at risk in contracting the deadly coronavirus, while those individuals with blood type “O” are less at risk.

The first-ever study linking blood types to the coronavirus was released on Tuesday by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), revealing that those individuals in China who contracted the deadly disease, who are in the “type A” blood group, have a higher percentage of cases, then those individuals within the “type O” blood group.

While the research is still in the preliminary stages, it appears that blood type may play a role in who’s at risk.

The research is currently being led by Dr. Wang Xinghuan with the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, looking at over 2,000 infected Chinese patients in the cities of Wuhan (where the outbreak occurred), and in Shenzhen.

The study found that those patients with blood type “A” had a higher rate of infection with more complex and severe symptoms than their type “O” counterparts. Of the 206 patients initially tested, 85 had type “A” blood, while 52 had type “O” blood, a 63% increase, while the other blood types were spread among the 8 most common groups.

The researches concluded in their study; “People of blood group “A” might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection.”

Adding that Sars-CoV-2-infected patients with blood group “A” may need to receive more vigilant surveillance and aggressive treatment.

While those with “Blood group O had a significantly lower risk for the infectious disease compared with non-O blood groups.”

Moreover, according to another study by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), type “O” blood is the most common blood group within the 8 classifications of  A+, A-, B+, B-, O+, O-, AB+ and AB-, which may in fact pose several issues with the study.

In that depending on the country of origin, percentages of “O” type blood can vary within a population. For example, in India 37.12% of the population has “O” type blood, closely followed by “B” with 32.26%, followed by “A” with 22.88%, while “AB” coming in with just 7.74%.

Contrast those percentages with the United States, in which about 44% of the population is type “O” followed by 41% with type “A” which calls into question the Chinese premise regarding an individual being at a higher risk because of blood type, moreover with only 206 patients actually tested, the research seems woefully inconclusive.

Wang wrote: “It might be helpful to introduce ABO blood typing in both patients and medical personnel as a routine part of the management of Sars-CoV-2 and other coronavirus infections, to help define the management options and assess risk exposure levels of people.”

Meanwhile, Gao Yingdai, a researcher with the State Key Laboratory of Experimental Haematology in Tianjin, suggested that ordinary citizens should not take the statistics too seriously.

‘If you are type “A”, there is no need to panic. It does not mean you will be infected 100%.”

‘If you are type “O”, it does not mean you are absolutely safe, either. You still need to wash your hands and follow the guidelines issued by authorities.”

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