Assessment of the Relationship between ABO Blood Group and Susceptibility, Severity, and Mortality Rates in COVID-19

A relationship has been identified between the blood group and infectious diseases. COVID-19 is an infection caused by a new coronavirus designated as SARS-CoV-2, which has rapidly spread worldwide. In this retrospective study, COVID-19 patients who were referred to Razi Hospital in Ahvaz from February 2020 to May 2020 were evaluated and analyzed using SPSS v.16.0. The relationship between the ABO blood group and COVID-19 was assessed using the Kruskal Wallis test and Spearman correlation coefficient. The frequencies of blood types O, AB, B, and A were 40.2, 11.8, 25.5, and 22.5%, respectively, Among the 8016 COVID-19 patients, the frequencies of blood types O, AB, B, and A were 41.9, 9.3, 25.7, and 23.1%, respectively, and no significant difference was observed in terms of the distribution of blood groups between the healthy and infected people (P = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.66-1.23). In addition, patients admitted to the ICU ward had blood groups of O, AB, B, and A, with a percentage of 21.3, 31.29, 33.6, and 35.3%, respectively. Furthermore, dead patients had A, B, AB, and O blood types with a percentage of 10.0, 11.4, 11.05, and 16.3%, respectively. A significant relationship was observed between the blood group and disease severity and death in COVID-19 patients (p=0.05, 95% CI = 1.02-1.73). The study showed that people with blood types A and O are at higher and lower risk of infection, severity, and death from COVID-19, respectively.