People With Blood Groups A, B and Rh+ More Likely to Catch Covid-19, Study Reveals

New Delhi: People with blood groups A, B and Rh+ are more disposed to catching Covid-19 and those with blood groups AB, O and Rh- are at a much lower risk of the infection, a study at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has revealed. According to a report in The Indian Express, the study was conducted in 2,586 Covid-19 positive patients who were admitted to the hospital from April 8 2020 to October 4 2020. The findings were published in the November 21 issue of Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

“Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is a new virus, and it is unclear whether blood groups have any impact on Covid-19 risk or progression. Therefore, we investigated the association of ABO and Rh blood group with Covid-19 susceptibility, prognosis, recovery time, and mortality in this study,” Dr. Rashmi Rana, Consultant, Department of Research, was quoted as saying in the report.

Dr. Vivek Ranjan, Co-author and Chairperson, Department of Blood Transfusion, pointed out that male patients with blood group B were found to be more prone to the virus than the female patients with the same blood group, and blood group AB was found to be more susceptible to infection in patients who were aged less than 60 years.

According to the research paper, the frequencies of A, B, O and AB blood groups were 29.93%, 41.8%, 21.19% and 7.89% respectively, while in a control group of 79,325, their frequencies were 21.86%, 38.49%, 29.37% and 10.28% respectively. Of the patients, 98.07% were Rh positive.

However, the paper says that they found no association between blood groups and susceptibility to severity of disease and mortality.

source https://www.india.com/news/india/people-with-blood-groups-a-b-and-rh-more-likely-to-catch-covid-19-study-reveals-as-omicron-variant-raises-new-fears-5118372/