Abstract
BackgroundThere are preliminary studies about the association between COVID-19 and ABO phenotypes and the results are controversial. There are only two studies which investigated the association of Rh blood groups in addition to ABO with COVID-19; however, in the statistical analysis ABO and Rh blood groups have been considered separately. Therefore, the present case-control study was performed to determine the association of COVID-19 with ABO blood groups considering the Rh blood groups simultaneously. The study was conducted in Kunduz COVID-19 treatment specific center, Spin-Zar Hospital (Kunduz Province, North East Afghanistan). A total of 301 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1039 healthy blood donors as control group were included in the study.ResultsThe Rh− phenotype strongly increased the risk of COVID-19 (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.86–3.89, P < 0.001). Although blood group A increased the risk of developing COVID-19, the association did not reach statistical significance. In analysis of the combination phenotypes, the A− blood group remarkably increased the risk of COVID-19 (OR = 7.24, 95% CI 3.62–14.4, P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that the interaction of Rh and ABO is significant (P < 0.013).ConclusionThese findings indicate that susceptibility to COVID-19 is strongly associated with A− blood group.
Highlights
BackgroundSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), causing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), is distributed to almost all countries in the world and until now (1 October 2020), more than 32,469,000 confirmed cases with 1,027,000 death have been reported from all around the world
There are preliminary studies about the association between COVID-19 and ABO phenotypes and the results are controversial
Participants This case-control study was accomplished during August and September 2020 in Kunduz COVID-19 treatment specific center, Spin-Zar Hospital supported by Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan and JACK organization (Kunduz Province, North East Afghanistan)
Summary
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), causing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), is distributed to almost all countries in the world and until now (1 October 2020), more than 32,469,000 confirmed cases with 1,027,000 death have been reported from all around the world. There are several ecologic and case-control studies investigated the association between common genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to COVID-19, as well as its mortality [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. The association of genetic polymorphism in blood groups with susceptibility to some infectious diseases has been well established [14]. It has been reported that the prevalence and mortality of COVID-19 is associated with ABO (MIM: 616093) and Rh There are three studies which investigated the association of Rh blood groups in addition to ABO with COVID-19; in the statistical analysis, ABO and Rh have been considered separately [15, 23, 25]. The present case-control study was performed to determine the association of COVID-19 with ABO blood groups considering the Rh blood groups simultaneously
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