Lower risk of COVID-19 infection for people with O blood type: Study

LONDON: Two studies published in the journal “Blood Advances” on Wednesday, October 14, point towards the possibility of a link between blood type and COVID-19 infection. Studies suggest that people with blood type O have a lower risk of COVID-19 infection and organ complications.

In the first study, scientists compared Danish health registry data of 4,73,000 people tested for COVID-19 infection with a control group of more than 22 lakh people from general population. It was found that among COVID-19 positive patients, there were fewer people with O blood type and more with A, B and AB types. The researchers said that more studies are needed to completely understand the reason and its effect on patients.

A separate study in Canada has also found that people with blood types A or AB appear to suffer from greater severity of COVID-19 infections than people with type O or B. They have studied the data from almost 95 critically ill COVID-19 patients hospitalised in Vancouver. Patients with blood group A and AB required dialysis due to kidney failure.

These findings taken together suggest that people with blood type O and B have lesser probability of organ dysfunction or failure due to COVID-19 infection.