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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCOVID-19 and blood type: What's the link?
If theres one thing we want to know about COVID-19, its probably this: Whats my risk of getting it?
Researchers have identified certain things that make some people more vulnerable than others. Men are at greater risk than women. Older people are at greater risk than younger people. Those with chronic health problems like Type 2 diabetes, obesity and serious heart conditions are faring worse than those without them. Black and Latino Americans are at greater risk than Asian Americans and whites.
Now theres evidence that blood type could be a risk factor too.
-snip-
What did the New England Journal of Medicine study say about blood types?
Researchers analyzed genetic data from more than 1,600 patients hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19 in Italy and Spain and compared them with about 2,200 others who didnt have the disease. After making adjustments to account for the effects of age and sex on COVID-19 risk, the researchers found striking differences in blood types of the sick patients compared with the controls.
In this population, having Type A blood was associated with a 45% increased risk of having severe COVID-19. On the other hand, having Type O blood was associated with a 35% reduced risk of the disease. Those relationships held up whether the Italian and Spanish patients were analyzed separately or together.
-more-
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/covid-19-and-blood-type-whats-the-link/ar-BB16xkoL?li=BBnb7Kz
safeinOhio
(32,746 posts)Still staying home.
dubyadiprecession
(5,737 posts)AJT
(5,240 posts)dubyadiprecession
(5,737 posts)2naSalit
(86,897 posts)my blood type was. And now that I think about it, I really wonder why that is.
helpisontheway
(5,008 posts)lark
(23,182 posts)Hubs and I are O's so really happy we're less at risk of severe issues, but my sister who has the already scarred lungs is type A - the bad kind. So I still have to be extra careful for her, but it really changes nothing because I was already masking and staying at home most of the time and being socially distanced with a mask when not.
hunter
(38,340 posts)It's very similar to the way skin color was selected for. Dark skin is protective in sunny places, but it doesn't let enough light through for Vitamin D synthesis in cloudy places.
A blood type that's protective against a certain parasite in one place might make someone more susceptible to a pathogen in another place.
Maybe in the next pandemic people with type A blood won't get as sick.
Yes, there will be more pandemics, especially as the world warms and human populations increase.
wackadoo wabbit
(1,167 posts)Some background: We receive two copies of a particular gene, one from each parent. If you have type A blood, you might have received an A allele (an allele is just a version of the gene, when there's more than one variant) from both parents, meaning that you are actually an AA. Or, on the other hand, you might have received an A allele from one parent and an O from the other, which would mean that you're actually an AO. Since the O allele is recessive, if you're an AO, you still type as A.
So for all these people who are doing poorly, are they all AAs? Does having the O allele provide some protection (as, with the APOE gene, having an E2 allele helps mitigate against the ill effects of the E4)?
Just something I think about when I should be doing something productive.