Abstract
Objective: To investigate the association between the ABO blood group and the COVID-19 susceptibility. Material & Methods: The study is a retrospective cohort study. It included all hospitalized confirmed COVID-19 patients in Qatif central hospital, Eastern province, Saudi Arabia. Results: Our sample consists of 72 patients, we found a percentage distribution of 23.62%, 33.33%, 9.72%, and 33.33% for blood groups A, B, AB and O, respectively. Our results showed significantly increased risk for AB blood groups and significantly lower risk for the O blood group. Although there was a higher percentage distribution of the B blood group among COVID-19 patients as compared to the blood donors’ groups, this difference did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion: patients with AB blood group have higher susceptibility while patients with O blood group have lower susceptibility to COVID-19 infection. Our study has limitations and further studies are needed.
Highlights
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which triggers the current COVID19 infectious disease, is rapidly spreading across the world today [1].Owing to the rapid dissemination of COVID-19, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of patients affected and 3,267,184 patients have been diagnosed, with 229,971 deaths to our present time
We investigated the relationship between the ABO blood group type and the susceptibility to COVID-19 in patients who were admitted at Qatif Central Hospital (QCH)
A confirmed case of Covid-19 was identified as a positive result for nasal and pharyngeal swab specimens in real-time reverse transcriptase – polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assay
Summary
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which triggers the current COVID19 infectious disease, is rapidly spreading across the world today [1]. Owing to the rapid dissemination of COVID-19, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of patients affected and 3,267,184 patients have been diagnosed, with 229,971 deaths to our present time. In Saudi Arabia, up to the present time, there are 24,097 patients, with 169 deaths [2]. Current clinical findings indicate that the age, gender and comorbidity of patients are the key risk factors predicting the extent of COVID-19 infection [1]. No biological markers have been identified so far for predicting COVID19 susceptibility. Blood group types are genetically inherited, environmental factors may theoretically influence which types of blood group in a population may be more frequently be passed on to the generation [3]
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