If your blood type is ‘A’, you could be more vulnerable to COVID-19 than a person with blood type ‘O’ according to a recent study, the results of which were reported by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The preliminary study assessed blood types of people in China who had been infected with the mutated coronavirus.
A team of researchers looked at blood type patterns of over 2,000 infected patients in Shenzhen and Wuhan. Their findings showed blood type A individuals were more commonly infected than type O. What is more, their symptoms were more severe.
85 of 206 patients were type A, which was 63 per cent more than the 52 with type O.
According to the researchers, blood group O patients faced a significantly lower risk of developing complication than type A. However, keep in mind that the study is yet to be peer reviewed.
For the time being, the authors recommended blood type A people strengthened personal protection to limit the risk of infection.
“People of blood group A might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection,” wrote the researchers led by Wang Xinghuan with the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.
“Sars-CoV-2-infected patients with blood group A might need to receive more vigilant surveillance and aggressive treatment,” Wang wrote.
Blood type on its own doesn’t mean you’re completely safe. You should adhere to your government’s safety guidelines regardless of your blood type.
US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) research shows that about 41 per cent of the US population is type A. Approximately 44 per cent is type O.
Wang Xinghuan, who led the team behind the study, wrote that ABO blood typing should be introduced in both medical staff and patients as a routine part of managing coronavirus infections like COVID-19 and Sars-CoV-2. This might help set management options and evaluate people’s risk exposure levels.
Incidences of infection with COVID-19 are on the decline in China, but they are increasing globally. According to Dr. Gauden Galea, representative of the WHO in China, this shows the course of the outbreak in China has been changed. He told UN News that the pandemic “has been nipped as it was growing and stopped in its tracks.”
The fatality rate among 72,000 Chinese coronavirus patients was 2.3 per cent overall. The rate increased to 15 per cent among adults over 80.