New study finds blood type affects risk of severe COVID-19 infection

A new genetic analysis of COVID-19 patients suggests that blood type might influence whether someone develops severe COVID-19, according to a latest study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, involving researchers in Italy, Spain, Denmark, Germany and other countries, compared about 2,000 patients in Europe with severe COVID-19 to several thousand other people who were healthy or who had only mild or no symptoms.

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They found that those who had Type A blood were more likely to have severe disease while those with Type O were less likely.

“Our genetic data confirm that blood group O is associated with a risk of acquiring COVID-19 that was lower than that in non-O blood groups, whereas blood group A was associated with a higher risk than non-A blood groups,” the researchers wrote in their report.

They found people with Type A blood had a 45 percent higher risk of becoming infected than people with other blood types, and people with Type O blood were just 65 percent as likely to become infected as people with other blood types.

They also found that certain gene clusters were tied to higher odds of developing severe COVID-19.

Source: Xinhua