- There could be a potential increase in the risk of infection in patients with blood type A and, on the other hand, blood type O was associated with a potential lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 ;
- The same patterns were identified in the dead patients, suggesting a higher mortality rate in type A and a decreased one in type B;
- Inhibition of the activity of the viruses on angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) may be due to the effect of anti-A antibodies on this target, but additional studies should be done to review this hypothesis considering all the potential biases of a descriptive review.
This paper did not undergo peer review and was published on a website where researchers can post complete but unpublished medical papers. It is a descriptive analysis that should not warrant any change in practice at this level.
In this article, the authors compared the blood group distribution in 2,173 patients with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis to healthy people from the same regions, using data from three hospitals in China. A number of 206 dead patients were included. The Landsteiner’s blood typing was used, which refers to the ABO classification. It is interesting to note that similar risk patterns have been discussed in previous studies on other coronaviruses.
Source :
Jiao Zhao, Yan Yang, Han-Ping Huang, Dong Li. (March 23, 2020). Relationships between the ABO Blood Group and the COVID-19 Susceptibility. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.11.20031096