Relationship between the ABO Blood Group and the COVID-19 Susceptibility

Zhao, Jiao; Yang, Yan; Huang, Hanping; Li, Dong; Gu, Dongfeng; Lu, Xiangfeng; Zhang, Zheng; Liu, Lei; Liu, Ting; Liu, Yukun; He, Yunjiao; Sun, Bin; Wei, Meilan; Yang, Guangyu; Wang, Xinghuan; Zhang, Li; Zhou, Xiaoyang; Xing, Mingzhao; Wang, Peng George

The novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been spreading around the world rapidly and declared as a pandemic by WHO. Here, we compared the ABO blood group distribution in 2,173 patients with COVID-19 confirmed by SARS-CoV-2 test from three hospitals in Wuhan and Shenzhen, China with that in normal people from the corresponding regions. The results showed that blood group A was associated with a higher risk for acquiring COVID-19 compared with non-A blood groups, whereas blood group O was associated with a lower risk for the infection compared with non-O blood groups. This is the first observation of an association between the ABO blood type and COVID-19. It should be emphasized, however, that this is an early study with limitations. It would be premature to use this study to guide clinical practice at this time, but it should encourage further investigation of the relationship between the ABO blood group and the COVID-19 susceptibility.