Can Your Blood Type Actually Predict Your Coronavirus Risk?
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It’s looking increasingly likely that having blood type O might give you some protective effects against Covid-19, while blood type A may be linked to more severe illness from the virus.
A new European study involving 1,980 patients with Covid-19 revealed people with blood group A had a higher risk of catching coronavirus and developing severe symptoms than other blood groups. However, among those with blood group O, there appeared to be some form of “protective effect”.
Previous studies have shown similar findings. A preprint study of 2,173 patients with Covid-19 in China found people with blood group A were at a higher risk of contracting the disease, while people with blood group O had a lower risk of infection.
Another preprint study involving 1,559 coronavirus patients in New York found those with blood group A were 33% more likely to test positive for Covid-19 than other blood types, and those with O-negative and O-positive blood types were less likely to test positive.
Why might this be happening?
There are four main blood groups. These are:
Blood group A, which has A antigens on the red blood cells with anti-B antibodies in the plasma.
Blood group B, which has B antigens with anti-A antibodies in the plasma.
Blood group O, which has no antigens, but both anti-A and anti-B antibodies in the plasma.
Blood group AB, which has both A and B antigens, but no antibodies.
Previous research into other forms of coronavirus found that certain antibodies linked to blood group O helped to fight off the virus better than others.
“People have seen that O blood group people are likely to be more protected against Sars-CoV previously compared to people with A blood type,” explains Dr Sakthivel Vaiyapuri, associate professor in cardiovascular and venom pharmacology at the University of Reading. “This was suggested to occur due to the...
