Charles Teves
According to a preliminary study conducted by Chinese researchers, people with blood type A are more susceptible to the coronavirus.
More than 2,000 patients from Wuhan and Shenzhen infected with COVID-19 had their blood tested by the researchers which were then compared the results with healthy people. The study found that blood type A patients are more vulnerable to the virus and can develop more severe symptoms.
Interestingly, those with the blood type O were found to be more resistant against the deadly virus.
Researchers are urging the government and medical facilities to look into blood types when treating patients who have the virus.
While the researchers said the study was preliminary and more work was needed, they did urge governments and medical facilities to consider blood type differences when planning mitigation measures or treating patients with the virus, known as Sars-CoV-2.
Wang Xinghuan of the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University said that people with blood type A will be needing more in terms of protection from the virus.
“People of blood group A might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection.”
These people will also need more when it comes to treatment.
“Sars-CoV-2-infected patients with blood group A might need to receive more vigilant surveillance and aggressive treatment.”
Published on Medrxiv.org, the study confirmed that those with blood type O have better chances of protection.
“Blood group O had a significantly lower risk for the infectious disease compared with non-O blood groups.”
There have been 206 so far who have died from Covid-19 in Wuhan, and 85 of them had Blood Type A, which was 63% more compared to the 52% who died that had blood type O.
“It might be helpful to introduce ABO blood typing in both patients and medical personnel as a routine part of the management of Sars-CoV-2 and other coronavirus infections, to help define the management options and assess risk exposure levels of people,” Wang said.
The scientists who conducted the study came from various cities in China, and the study has not been peer-reviewed yet. The authors have warned others that the information published might have its risks if applied in clinical practice.
Gao Yingdai, a researcher with the State Key Laboratory of Experimental Haematology in Tianjin stated that improvements can be made from the study. Even though 2,000 patients were involved, a bigger sample size would prove more accurate in the findings.
Gao also said that it failed to explain the molecular interaction between the virus and different types of red blood cells.
Thanks to Austrian biologist Karl Landsteiner, blood types are now distinguishable from each other when the discovered the main blood groups back in 1901. Blood transfusions can now be done properly.
The evolution of blood groups to this day, still has no definitive answer from scientists. But one theory suggests that this is a result of the genetic memory of a plague. Some also say that environmental factors such as altitude, temperature or humidity might have played a role to favor the increase of certain blood type populations.
Other studies have also observed blood type differences, such in the cases of the Norwalk virus, hepatitis B and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
Gao said that the study “may be helpful to medical professionals, but ordinary citizens should not take the statistics too seriously. If you are type A, there is no need to panic. It does not mean you will be infected 100 percent,”
Nobody is completely immune from the virus.
“If you are type O, it does not mean you are absolutely safe, either. You still need to wash your hands and follow the guidelines issued by authorities.”
The total cases of the virus worldwide have now amounted to more than 180,000.
