[Susceptibility Of ABOS Blood Groups To COVID-19 At The National Institute Of Public Health (INSP) Of Mali In 2020]

Several authors have suggested an association between the ABO system (ABOS) and the risk of SARS CoV-2 infection. The objective of the present study was to identify the susceptibility of ABOS blood groups to COVID-19 at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) of Mali.

This was an unpaired case-control study. The cases (402) were COVID-19 patients, and the controls (5438) were Muslim pilgrims, all of whom had undergone ABO blood grouping at the INSP. Logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection status using SPSS version25 software.

Blood types had the following frequencies: O(34%), B(30%), A(28%), AB(8%) for cases and O(42%), B(27%), A(25%), AB(6%) for controls. COVID-19 positive status was not significantly associated with blood groups A(oR=1.17; CI95%[0.93-1.47]), B(OR=1.11; CI95%[0.89-1.39]) and AB(OR=1.41; CI95%[0.97-2.06]). However, blood group O subjects were 28 times less likely to have COVID-19 than non-O(OR=0.72; CI95%[0.58-0.89).

The results show that blood group O individuals were less likely to have SARS CoV-2 infection than non-O individuals. This should not affect the use of barrier measures in ABOS groups.