A study conducted by doctors and researchers at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) has found that A, B and Rh+ blood group individuals were at a significantly higher risk of being infected by Covid-19 virus.
The study was done by Dr. Vivek Ranjan, Chairperson, Department of Blood Transfusion and Dr Rashmi Rana, Consultant, Department of Research, on a total of 2,586 Covid-19 positive who were admitted at SGRH from 8 April 2020 to 4 October 2020 when the second wave had just begun in the country.
All the tested patients were Indian nationals. The two researchers, in their study, found that O, AB and Rh- are at a lower risk of Covid-19 infection. The study revealed that there was no association between blood groups and susceptibility to severity of disease as well as mortality. This research has been published in the November 21 edition of “Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.”
“We also found that male patients of blood group B are more prone to Covid-19 than the female patients with blood group B and Blood Group AB was observed to be more susceptible to infection in patients with age group less than 60 years,” Dr Vivek Ranjan, Co-author and Chairperson, Department of Blood Transfusion, SGRH, told The Daily Guardian.
According to Dr. Rashmi Rana, Consultant, Department of Research, SGRH, “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.”
The study found that blood group A and Rh + types are associated with a decrease in recovery period, whereas Blood Group O & Rh- are associated with increase in recovery period. However, the ABO and/or Rh blood groups may not be responsible for this association, as these may indicate an unexplored underlying factor like co-morbidity. Therefore, larger, multicenter, and prospective studies are needed to ascertain the relationship between blood groups and SARS-CoV-2. “It is interesting to note that the common blood group in North India is B+ O+ A+ AB+ whereas in our study this pattern was not seen when it came to the number of infected people’s blood group,” Ranjan said.