According to two studies released earlier this month, researchers suggest that people with blood type O may not be as susceptible to contracting COVID-19, as well as others including organ complications if they do get the virus.
According to two separate retrospective Blood Advances studies, biomedical experts believe they may have identified coronavirus risk factors and potential treatment options.
How blood type may determine COVID-19 risk factors and complications emerged as an important question in their research, and these new reports may provide some answers.
However, the researchers acknowledge that additional data is necessary to better understand what this means for the future.
The first retrospective study outlined evidence which suggests that those with blood type O may offer some protection against COVID-19.
Researchers analyzed Danish health registry data from nearly 500,000 individuals that tested for COVID-19. Among those who tested positive, they found fewer people with blood type O than all the other blood types.
Overall, the report suggests that blood types A, B or AB may have weaker resistance against COVID-19 than those with type O.
The researchers also reported that they didn’t find a substantial distinction in the rate of infection between A, B and AB types. Since blood type usually varies among ethnic groups, the researchers also considered ethnicity and doubled down on the assertion that fewer people with blood type O tested positive for the virus.
“It is very important to consider the proper control group because blood type prevalence may vary considerably in different ethnic groups, and different countries,” said study author Torben Barington, MD, of Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark. “We have the advantage of a strong control group—Denmark is a small, ethnically homogenous country with a public health system and a central registry for lab data—so our control is…
population-based, giving our findings a strong foundation.”
A or AB blood types appear to suffer greater complications associated with COVID-19, severer than those with type O or B, according to a separate retrospective study.
Examiners looked at data from 95 patients in critical condition, hospitalized in Vancouver, Canada. It was found that those with blood type A or AB were more likely to require breathing assistance, suggesting that they had more significant lung damage from COVID-19.
They also found more type A or AB patients experience kidney failure and needed dialysis.
Summarily, these results paint a picture that shows those with type A and AB may have an increased risk of organ failure after contracting COVID-19 than people with blood types O or B.
Furthermore, while people with blood types A and AB were released from the hospital sooner than those with types O or B, they did remain in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a longer average time, which indicates greater COVID-19 complications.
Study author Mypinder S. Sekhon, MD, of the University of British Columbia said that “the unique part of our study is our focus on the severity effect of blood type on COVID-19.
We observed this lung and kidney damage, and in future studies we will want to tease out the effect of blood group and COVID-19 on other vital organs.
Of particular importance as we continue to traverse the pandemic, we now have a wide range of survivors who are exiting the acute part of COVID-19, but we need to explore mechanisms by which to risk stratify those with longer-term effects.”
Researchers look forward to discovering more information about the matter as treatment studies advance.
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