Individuals with A blood group more vulnerable to Covid-19 untrue: Experts

KABUL (Pajhwok): Medical experts reject the claim circulated in the internet and social media that people with A blood group are more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Rumors:

People with type-A blood are more at risk of contracting Covid-19.

Internet page ‘community.apan’ wrote: “Researchers examined 2,173 Covid-19 patients at a hospital in Shenzhen and Wuhan, which was the epicenter of the virus outbreak.”

The report says, “Researchers found that people with type-A blood are more susceptible to respiratory failure caused by Covid-19 infection while individuals with O blood group possessed little possibility.”

“Thirty-two percent of local residents possessed A blood group while 38 percent hospitalized patients have had A blood group and on the contrary 34 percent of local residents were with O blood group while 26 percent of hospitalized patients possessed O group,” according to the research.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mohammad NasirJala, a medical doctor in a videoclip, also pointed to the issue and said, “New research in France shows that people with type-A blood are more at the risk of being infected by Covid-19.”

He said that it was a small level experiment and implemented on 40 people. “The results of this research shows that people with type-A blood can be severely affected by Covid-19,” he said.

Fact Check

Medical experts say that the matter had not been proven so far and it was still a hypothesis.

Dr. HashmatullahFaizi, in charge of ICU in Afghan-Japan Hospital in Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News that some people at the beginning of the pandemic believed that people with type-A blood group are more at the risk of infection by the virus, but it was not proven later.

“It is not clear so far as which type of people are more prone and which are less likely to be infected by Covid-19 because the blood type does not matter in this case,” he said.

He said that such beliefs were unproven and they were only theories which were not acceptable.

The severity of coronavirus infection depends on body resistance and the resistance has no relation with age because there are people of elder ages and but has higher resistance to the virus, he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. WahdatAlkozai, head of ShiekhZayed Hospital in Kabul, said that some research conducted in China earlier showed that people with type-A blood were more prone to the virus.

“The previous theory that people with type-A blood are more likely to get infected by the virus and people with type-O blood are less likely to get infected is rejected,” he said.

He said that researches done in 2020 over 108,000 people in three states of the US showed that severity of coronavirus disease had no links with the blood group. He said that the severity of the disease was the same for people with any type of blood.

Alokozai said that more researches were underway about the virus and efforts were on to reduce the fatalities caused by the disease.

A Medical Doctor Noor-ul-HaqYousufzai said no basic research has been conducted in the world as yet to prove that which blood group was more vulnerable to Covid-19.

A website ‘parsteblab’ wrote an article titled Blood Group Link with Covid-19 and Chances of Infection: “Recent research has proved that blood groups A, B, O, AB are not significantly associated with an increased risk of Covid-19.”

A comprehensive study of nearly 108,000 patients in the health centres of three US states found no link between blood group and risk of COVID-19.

Based on this extensive study, there appears to be no association between blood type and the degree of susceptibility or severity of Covid-19 disease

Health Ministry Spokesperson Javid Hajir said: “The World Health Organisation has not yet released any information that Covid-19 infection has any link with any of human blood group.”

He said individuals with diabetic, cancer, respiratory disease and low immunity were more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Nh/ma

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