STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A group of European researchers said they have determined that individuals with Type A blood had a higher risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) than other blood types.
The peer-reviewed study, published Wednesday in New England Journal of Medicine, consisted of comparing approximately 2,000 patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms at seven different hospitals in Italy and Spain to thousands of others who were healthy or had mild symptoms.
“Our genetic data confirm that blood group O is associated with a risk of acquiring Covid-19 that was lower than that in non-O blood groups, whereas blood group A was associated with a higher risk than non-A blood groups,” the researchers wrote. That data is consistent with other studies that have shown O blood types seem to be less susceptible to the virus.
Individuals with Type O blood were also “relatively resistant to infection” in the case of SARS, a genetic cousin to the current novel coronavirus that occurred in 2002.
The extent of the difference in risk, however, appears to be minimal.
“The absolute difference in risk is very small,” said Dr. Roy Silverstein, a hematologist who is the chairman of the department of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in a CNN report. “The risk reduction may be statistically significant, but it is a small change in actual risk. You never would tell somebody who was Type O that they were at smaller risk of infection,” he said.
Rather, the findings could point to designing treatment or vaccines for the coronavirus, researchers said.
The scientists also analyzed genetic variations present in the patients and found that they could be associated with an individual’s immune response — potentially pointing toward why some people become more ill than others when contracting COVID-19.
While the researchers said “A causative gene cannot be reliably implicated by the present data,” two genetic variations were found “to be associated with Covid-19–induced respiratory failure with genomewide significance.”
The variations, which could be associated with a person’s immune response, is significant in relation to one of the deadliest effects of the coronavirus — a cytokine storm that signals an overwhelming overreaction of the immune system.
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June 18, 2020 at 11:19PM
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Researchers suggest this blood type is most susceptible to coronavirus - SILive.com
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