Does Your Blood Type Lower Your Risk of Coronavirus?

The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide. It also hit several celebrities and top political figures around the world.

The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.

The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.

On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus” and “disease”.

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In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.

Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.

It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.

The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.

People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.

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More evidence highlights the importance blood type plays

Having a certain blood type lowers your risk of contracting coronavirus, preliminary data from a new study suggests.

Research from the genetic-testing studies giant 23andMe Inc. discovered differences in a gene that impacts a person's blood type that affects their vulnerability against the virus.

Scientists looked at susceptibility rather than the severity of illness, examined over 10,000 Covid-19 patients, who told the company they were infected with the diseases.

They have been looking into the genetic factors to discover how there are no symptoms in some inpiduals who contract coronavirus, while others get severely ill.

23andMe started a study in April, seeking to use millions of profiles in its DNA database to interpret the role genetics play in the disease.

“Preliminary results from more than 750,000 participants suggest that blood type O is highly fortified against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus,” the company said Monday.

The results match other research that has indicated a connection between variations in the ABO gene and coronavirus.

Many other groups are perusing the genome, including 23andMe rival Ancestry Inc., to understand the virus better.

Factors such as age and underlying health conditions could show how people fare once they contracted coronavirus, but those factors alone do not explain the wide variety of symptoms, or why some inpiduals are contracting the disease, while others are not.

The research also found that people with type O blood are between 9% and 18% less likely than with others of different blood types to test positive for the virus.

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It was also discovered that there was a slight difference in susceptibility among other blood types. When the researchers adjusted the data to account for factors such as the “age” and “pre-existing illnesses”, the findings were the same.

Furthermore, when they also restricted the data to only those with high-probability of exposure such as the health-care workers”, the results were also the same.

Studying the genetics of those inpiduals who are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 may help identify and protect those that are more at risk, as well as help to speed up treatment and development of drugs.

Adam Auton, the lead researcher at the 23andMe report, noted that while this evidence is compelling, there is still a long way to go.