RhD blood type significantly influences susceptibility to contract COVID-19 among a study population in Iraq

Majeed, K. R.; Al-Fahad, D.; Jalood, H. H.; Hantosh, H. A.; Ali, M. K.; Sakthivel, S.; Williams, H. F.; Gibbins, J. M.; Patel, K.; Fazil Baksh, M.; Vaiyapuri, S.

The ABO blood type has been reported to be associated with several diseases such as hepatitis and malaria. Recently, some studies have reported that people with O blood type are protected against COVID- 19, while people with A blood type are more susceptible to contract this disease. Here, we analysed data from 5668 COVID-19 patients along with the same number of control samples in a study population in Iraq. Our analysis confirms that people with O blood type are protected partially against COVID-19. Notably, we demonstrate that people with RhD- are more susceptible to contract COVID-19 than people with RhD+ blood type. The blood types are associated with some clinical symptoms such as headache and asthenia of COVID-19, but there is no association with other symptoms. There is no association between blood types and deaths among COVID-19 patients. This study suggests that in addition to ABO, RhD blood type influences the susceptibility to contract COVID-19. Overall, we conclude that susceptibility/protection against COVID-19 may not be determined based only on blood types among the global population as this might vary based on a number of other factors such as ethnicity, geographical locations, occupation and the level of exposure to infected people.