The reasons for this link aren't clear and more research is needed to say what implications, if any, it has for patients.
Studies add to growing evidence
By contrast, 44.4 per cent of group A tested positive, while in the wider Danish population that blood type makes up 42.4 per cent.
In the other study, researchers in Canada found that among 95 patients critically ill with COVID-19, a higher proportion with blood type A or AB - 84 per cent - required mechanical ventilation compared with patients with blood group O or B, which was 61 per cent.
"If one is blood group A, you don't need to start panicking. And if you're blood group O, you're not free to go to the pubs and bars."
No need to worry
It makes very little difference to most people's daily lives unless you have to have a blood transfusion.
Nor should people worry unduly about the link between blood type and COVID-19, Dr Torben Barington said, the senior author of the Danish paper and a clinical professor at Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark.
"We do not know whether this is some kind of protection of group O, or whether it's some kind of vulnerability in the other blood groups," Dr Barington said.
"I think this has scientific interest, and when we find out what the mechanism is, perhaps we're able to use that proactively in some way in regard to treatment."
In the Danish study, researchers analysed data on Danish individuals who were tested between February 27 and July 30, and the distribution of blood types among those people was compared with data from people who had not been tested.
They found that blood group wasn't a risk factor for hospitalisation or death from COVID-19.
While there are several theories, researchers don't yet know what mechanism could explain the link between different blood groups and COVID-19.
Other possible explanations involve blood group antigens and how they affect the production of infection fighting antibodies. Or it could be linked to genes associated with blood types and their effect on receptors in the immune system.
"It's a repeated, interesting scientific observation that really warrants further mechanistic work," he said.
'Important research question'
The previous genetic study, paired with the two new studies in Blood Advances, are "suggestive that this is a real phenomenon that we're seeing," Dr Adalja said, whose work is focused on emerging infectious disease.
"While we're not quite to the point where this is ironclad, it's clearly suggestive, and we have not seen anything inconsistent with this.
"The same pattern has been emerging with O blood type tending to be the one that's standing out."
Dr Adalja said blood types and their susceptibility to various infections have been studied in the medical literature before. For instance, research suggests that people with blood type O appear to be more susceptible to norovirus infection.
"We're starting to see enough now that I think it's an important research question to answer.
"There's more science to be done here, but it seems to me that there's more evidence accumulating for this hypothesis."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMilwFodHRwczovL3d3dy45bmV3cy5jb20uYXUvd29ybGQvcGVvcGxlLXdpdGgtYmxvb2QtdHlwZS1vLW1heS1oYXZlLWxvd2VyLXJpc2stb2YtY29yb25hdmlydXMtdHdvLW5ldy1zdHVkaWVzLXN1Z2dlc3QvNzNlOGE4Y2QtNDJjNi00MTUzLTk3NTEtY2FkMDU5MTEzZThj0gFFaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuOW5ld3MuY29tLmF1L2FydGljbGUvNzNlOGE4Y2QtNDJjNi00MTUzLTk3NTEtY2FkMDU5MTEzZThj?oc=5
2020-10-14 21:59:00Z
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