A, B and Rh+ Blood Groups More Prone to COVID Infection than O, AB and Rh- : Study

Blood groups A, B and Rh+ are more susceptible to COVID-19 infection as compared to blood groups O, AB and Rh-, says a recent study conducted at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. The study, findings of which have now been published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, however, also said that scientists have not found an association between blood groups and susceptibility to the severity of disease and mortality. 

The frequency of infection varied in different blood groups

According to the paper, the test involved 2,586 COVID-19 infected individuals, 98.07% of whom were Rh positive, and were enrolled in the study from April 8 to October 4, 2020. "We investigated the association of ABO and Rh blood groups with susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 infection, the severity of disease, length of stay, and mortality of patients. Association was analyzed with ABO blood group and Rh blood group system. This study includes real-time PCR (RT-PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the hospital", said the paper. All the patients were admitted to Delhi's Ganga Ram Hospital and the experts, for this study, extracted data of blood group distribution in India of a control group constituting 79,325 people. 

After analysing the RT-PCR data of the patients, experts found that the frequencies of A, B, O, and AB were 29.93%, 41.80%, 21.19%, and 7.98%, respectively. On the other hand, frequencies of the control group were found to be 21.86%, 38.49%, 29.37% and 10.28% belonging to the aforementioned groups. "Analysis showed that blood groups A and B were associated with high risk of infections, while blood groups O and AB were associated with a decreased risk of infection. Similarly, Rh+ was found to be associated with increased risk of COVID-19 infection," as per the study. 

However, as mentioned above, scientists have found no concrete evidence about the association of blood groups and their susceptibility to the severity and mortality rate. Although, the study strongly suggests that blood groups A and Rh+ types are associated with a decrease in the recovery period whereas blood groups O and Rh− are associated with an increase in the recovery period. Moreover, the study also clarified that since ABO and/or Rh blood groups may indicate an underlying factor like comorbidity, these two groups might have nothing to do with the said association. 

Image: PTI