Blood type A may raise COVID-19 contraction risk: Study

ANKARA People with certain blood types could be more likely to contract COVID-19, according to a study in the Blood Advances journal published Wednesday by the American Society of Hematology. The study has found that the novel coronavirus is particularly attracted to the blood group A antigen found on respiratory cells. This finding, however, may also provide clues about the potential relation between blood group A and COVID-19 infection, according to the study. "If we can better understand how the virus interacts with blood groups in people, we may be able to find new medicines or methods of prevention," one of the authors Dr. Sean Stowell of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston said in the study. "Our observation is not the only mechanism responsible for what we are seeing clinically, but it could explain some of the influence of blood type on COVID-19 infection," he added. The novel coronavirus has so far claimed more than 2.5 million lives in the world with over 115 million infections. The US still leads the world with over 518,000 deaths and 28.7 million cases, Johns Hopkins University data showed. Out of 107 million distributed doses of vaccines in the US, 80.5 million have been administered as of 6 a.m. EDT (1100GMT) Wednesday, but only 26.9 million people, or 8.1% of the US population, have received two doses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.