COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In Sudan, several hematological studies were conducted to study the ABO blood group distribution among the population, in which the “O” blood group was dominating followed by the “A” blood group. However, there is no systematic study that has been done to correlate between COVID-19 infection and the population’s blood group types, therefore we have intended to study the possible effect of blood group on the acquisition of COVID-19 infection. A questionnaire-based case-control study was carried out on 557 COVID-19 patients in Sudan, factors such as age, blood group, previous malaria infection, back history ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, and symptoms suffered were also considered and analyzed. The number of infected females was more than males, whereas the age between 25 to 35 years was the most affected age group. O Rh-positive (O+) blood group was the least affected by the disease while “A” Rh-negative (A-) individuals were the most venerable. Symptoms like fatigue, fever, and loss of smelling sensation were the major ones among the patients. Whereas 13% of SARS-COV-2 positive individuals remained asymptomatic. Since the Sudan population is largely constituted of “O” Rh-positive inhabitants (approx. 50%) these results might explain the relatively lower COVID-19 incidence in the country.
See the study:
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You say in the title Rh- A – least affected opposed to A+ positive!!? Yet in your write up it reads RH -A Negative more prone to virus ???!! Is this a typo or have I missed something ?
I have copied and pasted the study (not written anything in addition) in hope someone here could help make sense of it.
I have actually read different studies that do suggest RH negativity to be a factor with covid. Being RH negatives are less likely to catch, need oxygen, vent or die from covid. There are a couple studies out now that have not been peered reviewed, but they are all pretty much stating the same thing and imagine it will pass peer review.
Agree I notice that error myself, when married with the graph I am leaning towards it being a “typo” with the title being correct (RH- less vulnerable) and the narrative an error.
If I am reading the provided graph correctly “Blood group relationship of individuals with COVID-19 with (a) gender, (b) age group, (c) major symptoms and (d) chronic diseases” the percentages also seem support that RH- are significantly less vulnerable when compared to RH + in all categories.
Happy to stand corrected.
Mike:
Yes…I did read this. Thanks for posting. Yet another significant and well conducted study.
Having A type blood (negative) myself, I am keenly aware that my blood type predisposes me to a host of different diseases. I try not to dwell on this fact too much, as it is something that I can not change. It is good to see that having rhesus negative blood may offer some protection against SARS-COV-2.
Interesting study Mike.
(Not sure if this is the correct thread for the below study, please moderate it before approving).
It appears that there is an influx of information hitting the media, I am noticing more than ever before.
I found a new Danish study mentioning blood groups & RHD though I do find it a little confusing on its conclusions.
It seems to state that RHD – group has no difference in testing positive to the RHD + group “No difference in the RhD group was found between positively tested cases and the reference population (P = .15).”
Though unless I am missing something from what I read does not make a comparison when talking about Hospitalisation?
Could this fit previous studies discussed on this blog that seem to indicate that RH- can test positive to Covid-19 though are less likely to become severely ill?
Perhaps someone can make more sense from the below Danish study published yesterday:
https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article/4/20/4990/463793/Reduced-prevalence-of-SARS-CoV-2-infection-in-ABO
Below is the news article I copied the above study from which makes an interesting statement:
“Other possible explanations involve blood group antigens and how they affect the production of infection fighting antibodies. Or it could be linked to genes associated with blood types and their effect on receptors in the immune system”.
So perhaps they are leaving the door open for more information to be released.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/people-with-blood-type-o-may-have-lower-risk-of-coronavirus-two-new-studies-suggest/73e8a8cd-42c6-4153-9751-cad059113e8c
Check out this article it states everything more clearly. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20058073v3
RH negatives do have a slight protection. Which doesn’t surprise me. We can catch the virus but like other viruses it is harder for us to catch and when we do it isn’t as severe. Considering this started from an animal and we lack the rhesus factor it makes sense. I am actually beginning to wonder if this virus was designed to kill off all the rh positives as population control. Wish I knew what Fauci’s and Bill Gates blood type was.