Blood Type Could Help Determine Severity of Coronavirus Cases

Can Blood Type Determine The Severity Of Coronavirus Cases?

As the coronavirus outbreak and pandemic continues, both researchers and healthcare workers have noticed that while some people that get infected with COVID-19 only suffer from mild symptoms and are able to immediately recover, some become deathly ill immediately then die from it not long after.

Because of this, geneticists have been scouring our DNA for clues that can tell us why this happens. And now, a new study made by European scientists is the first to ever document a strong link between COVID-19 and genetic variations, specifically the one found in our blood type. This new discovery reveals that our blood type may help determine the severity of COVID-19, raising hopes of possibly treating the disease before any severe complications arrive.

Published in pre-review form in medRxiv, the study reveals that patients with Type A blood are usually 50 percent more likely to need oxygen or require the use of a ventilator, while Type O has the lowest risk when compared to other blood groups. It’s also just as striking for the genes that failed to show up since the coronavirus attaches itself to a protein called the ACE2 on the surface of our cells to enter them. However, genetic variants in ACE2 appeared to make no difference in the risk of severe COVID-19. Per the scientists, these findings suggest that there may be an unexplored factor that plays a bigger role in who gets to develop severe COVID-19 and who gets to walk away scot-free.



To do the research, a team from the University of Kiel in Germany reportedly extracted DNA samples and scanned it using a technique called genotyping. Fortunately, while more research is needed, succeeding in the next tests may give researchers the ability to come up with marker tests that can help physicians assess COVID-19 risk in patients. Additionally, treatments for severe COVID-19 patients may be developed based on these genetic findings.



A new study shows that people with type A blood are more likely to get infected by the novel coronavirus, while blood type O could be more resistant.

Original article by Medical Daily.