Study of Associations between ABO Blood Group and COVID-19 Infection, ICU Need and Death in a Tertiary Care Centre

Introduction: The world is experiencing COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier ABO and Rh blood group systems were associated with many infectious diseases. Currently a few studies have shown association between blood groups and COVID-19 infection. Objective of this study is to determine the associations between ABO blood group and COVID-19 infection, ICU need and death. Methods: A retrospective observational study was done at Emergency department, SDMMCH, Dharwad from March 2021 to July 2021. Clinical and ABO blood group data of patients were collected. Data was analyzed using chi-square test to determine the association between blood groups and COVID-19 susceptibility, need of ICU and mortality. Results: In our present study, out of 481 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria 158 cases (32.8%) were triaged as mild, 153 (31.8%) as moderate and 170 (35.3%) as severe. Among our study population 44.7% were of A blood group, 26.2% were O, 23.7% were B, and 5.4% were AB. Of 191 (39.7%) patients admitted in ICU, 131 (60.9%) were of blood group A. In our study 68 (14.1%) died of which 46 were of Blood group A and had highest mortality rate. Conclusions: In our study we observed that blood group A had more susceptibility for COVID-19 infection, required ICU care and had highest mortality compared to other ABO blood groups.