ABO blood groups and risk of covid-19.

Yalaoui, Sadok; Fakhfakh, Radhouane; Tritar, Fatma; Chaouch, Nawel; Mestiri, Tahar; Besbes, Mohamed; Hamzaoui, Agnès

INTRODUCTION Coronavirus pandemic has been the subject of a large number of publications, some of which have shown an increased risk of contracting Covid-19 in carriers of blood group A. AIMS In this study we looked at the profile of blood group phenotype of a series of Tunisian patients with covid-19 admitted to Abderrahman Mami hospital in Ariana . METHODS Our study included 51 Tunisian patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to Abderrahmane Mami hospital between late march 2020 and early May 2020. The distribution of blood groups in Covid-19 patients was compared with that of a control group of 1506 patients with no Covid-19 infection as well as with the distribution of blood groups in a population of 63375 voluntary blood donors. RESULTS Our series, although limited in size, showed a higher prevalence of blood group A among Covid-19 patients, statistically significant compared to ABO blood group distribution among Tunisian blood donors and among a control group of patients without Covid -19. CONCLUSION these results are in line with data from the literature, particularly on larger series in China.