Association between ABO / Rh-D Blood Group System and Covid 19 Susceptibility in Uttar Pradesh

Authors

  • Shani vishwakarma , Ashish Ashish , Shivani Mishra ,Royana Singh

Abstract

The ABO blood group system has been associated with multiple infectious diseases, including hepatitis B, dengue haemorrhagic fever and so on. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new respiratory infectious disease and the relationship between COVID-19 and ABO blood group system needs to be explored urgently. Several studies from different parts of the world showed a significant association of ABO blood group, Rh factor and COVID-19 susceptibility. It was demonstrated that individuals with blood group O are at the lower risk of coronavirus infection. To establish the association of ABO blood group in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility, we for the first-time analysed SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies among 960 individuals, collected from Eastern Uttar Pradesh region of India. Interestingly, we found neutralising antibodies, significantly higher proportion of blood type-B was observed in COVID-19 group (35.9% vs 31.9%, p=0.009). Blood type-AB was found more frequently (14.2% vs 11.8%, p=0.03) in the comparison group. The Rh-D Positive blood types were 93.3% in COVID-19 group and 94.9% in comparison group (p=0.03). The odds of blood type-B, AB and Rh-D positive to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 were 1.195 (95% CI 1.04 – 1.36, p=0.009), 0.80 (95% CI 0.66 – 0.97, p=0.03) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.57- 0.98, p = 0.03), respectively. Blood types A and O did not have significant association with SARS-CoV-2 PCR result (p = 0.22 and 0.88, respectively)

Published

2021-08-19

Issue

Section

Articles