A Danish and a Canadian study was conducted, and it has come to the knowledge that the blood type O is very less vulnerable to the coronavirus. Both these studies have been published on Blood Advances. But the researchers have said that a much deeper study is needed in order to come to a definite conclusion.
The study further states that the blood group of a person may play a role in susceptibility to infection and their chance of having a severe bout of the disease. A detailed study is required as there are no indications as to why this happens.
A statistical view in the Danish Study
A Danish study reported that among 7,422 people who tested positive for Covid-19, only 38.4% were blood type O. And this happened even though, amongst a population of 2.2 million people who were not tested, that blood type made up 41.7% of the entire population. On the contrary, 44.4% of group A tested positive when a total of 42.4% of the Danish population is of the same blood type.
Dr. Torben Barington, the senior author of the Danish paper and a clinical professor at Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark said, “We do not know whether this is some kind of protection of group O, or whether it’s some kind of vulnerability in the other blood groups.”
The Canadian Study states the following
Another Canadian study was conducted which showed that among 95 patients critically ill with Covid-19, a higher proportion with blood type A or AB — 84% — required mechanical ventilation. As compared to this, the percentage of patients with blood group O was only 61%. Which is much lesser than the type A or AB. The study also mentioned that the people with blood group A or AB stayed much longer in the intensive care units as compared to blood type O patients.
Dr. Mypinder Sekhon, an intensive care physician at Vancouver General Hospital and an author of the Canadian study said, “As a clinician … it is at the back of my mind when I look at patients and stratify them. But in terms of a definitive marker, we need repeated findings across many jurisdictions that show the same thing.”
Sekhon, who is also a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Critical Care Medicine and Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia added, “I don’t think this supersedes other risk factors of severity like age and co-morbidities and so forth.”
