A recent study conducted by a group of international researchers at the University of Kiel n Germany stated that patients with blood group 'A+' are more likely to need oxygen support and suffer serious illness if they contract the novel coronavirus.
While researchers were looking into the human genome to identify bits of DNA that could make it worse for a certain bracket of people, they found a common genetic root shared by COVID-19 patients who have blood group A+.
"We included 1,980 patients with Covid-19 respiratory failure at seven centers in the Italian and Spanish epicenters of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Europe (Milan, Monza, Madrid, San Sebastian and Barcelona) for a genome-wide association analysis. After quality control and exclusion of population outliers, 835 patients and 1,255 population-derived controls from Italy, and 775 patients and 950 controls from Spain were included in the final analysis. In total we analyzed 8,582,968 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and conducted a meta-analysis of both case-control panels," the study reads.
"The association signal at 9q34 was located at the ABO blood group locus and a blood-group-specific analysis showed higher risk for A-positive individuals, and a protective effect for blood group O," the study states as a result.
Over 6.5 million people worldwide have been infected from the novel coronavirus. In India, the number of cases has crossed 200,000 while the death toll is now upwards of 6,000.
