RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Scientists claim that individuals with blood type A have a significantly higher probability of contracting the Covid-19.
Research in Wuhan – the city where the virus would have started – also found that those with blood type A are at even greater risk of dying from the disease.
The Chinese study found that among patients infected with the new coronavirus, 25 percent had type O blood, while 41 percent fell into group A.
People with type O blood – which make up 32 percent of the population in Wuhan – accounted for a quarter (25 percent) of the deaths recorded in the survey.
Despite the data, researchers have not yet been able to determine how the risk and severity of the Covid-19 infection vary depending on the blood type.
For the purpose of this research, researchers examined the cases of 2,173 people diagnosed with the Covid-19, including 206 who died after contracting the virus, admitted to three hospitals in the Hubei province.
However, scientists caution that a broader study is required in order to validate the information and make it more reliable.
In the article, which has not yet been reviewed by a community of peers, published online on the medRxiv periodical, researchers stated: “Type O blood is associated with a lower risk of death, compared to other blood groups. Type A, on the other hand, shows a higher chance of mortality”.
And they added: “we thus consider [and without wanting to generalize or alarm] that patients infected with the novel coronavirus and belonging to blood group A should be subject to more comprehensive monitoring and more aggressive therapies”.