Experts in China have found that people with blood type A are more vulnerable to the strain of coronavirus, whereas people with type O seem to be more resistant. After analysing the blood patterns of more than 2,000 infected patients in China, the researchers found that those with type A blood showed a higher rate of infection and developed more severe symptoms. Those with O type tended to experience more mild symptoms from the disease, also called Sars-CoV-2.
Wang Xinghuan, with the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, stated: “People of blood group A might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection.
“Sars-CoV-2-infected patients with blood group A might need to receive more vigilant surveillance and aggressive treatment.”
In contrast, “blood group O had a significantly lower risk for the infectious disease compared with non-O blood groups”, according to a paper they published on Medrxiv.org.
Of those involved in the study who had died from the disease, which was 206, 85 were type A blood and 52 had type O blood.
Gao Yingdai, a researcher with the State Key Laboratory of Experimental Haematology in Tianjin who was not involved in the study, said the new study “may be helpful to medical professionals, but ordinary citizens should not take the statistics too seriously.”
She added: “If you are type A, there is no need to panic. It does not mean you will be infected 100 percent.
“If you are type O, it does not mean you are absolutely safe, either. You still need to wash your hands and follow the guidelines issued by authorities.”
Efforts to contain the coronavirus within China’s borders failed and COVID-19 has gone global, causing the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a pandemic.
Scientists are in a race against time to find a cure, with the disease leading to more than 7,000 deaths.
Around the world, total confirmed coronavirus cases have now surpassed 182,000 – impacting more than 100 countries.
The number of dead from the disease has also exceeded 7,100 globally with Europe now becoming the epicentre of the disease, including more than 1,500 cases in the UK.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi put have put restrictions on items amid coronavirus stockpiling.
Supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose and Aldi have had to crack down on over cautious-shoppers who have been stockpiling in-demand items such as toilet roll, anti-bacterial spray and gel, pasta, tinned goods and cleaning items.
Tesco has restricted customers to “a five-item maximum” on the number of milk, pasta and anti-bacterial wipes they can buy.
Sainsbury’s will be setting a limit of five units per customer on a small number of products such as hand wash, toilet rolls and cleaners.
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