RhD blood type significantly influences susceptibility to contract COVID-19 among a study population in Iraq [version 1; peer review: 1 approved]

• Published in: F1000 research Vol. 10; p. 38
• Main Authors: Majeed, Khalid R, Al-Fahad, Dhurgham, Jalood, Hayder H, Hantosh, Haider A, Ali, Mrtatha K, Sakthivel, Sumiktsal, Williams, Harry F, Gibbins, Jonathan M, Patel, Ketan, Baksh, M. Fazil, Vaiyapuri, Sakthivel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: COVID-19; Blood type; Blood group; Red blood cells; Iraq; ABO; Risk factors; RhD
• ISSN: 2046-1402; 2046-1402
• DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.27777.1

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.