Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), a research institute in India, has conducted a serosurvey in India to determine which blood groups are more vulnerable to the deadly coronavirus.
The research paper indicated that people with AB and B blood groups were more susceptible to Covid-19 compared to other blood groups. It further said that people with ‘O’ blood group were the least affected by the virus and most of them remained asymptomatic or had very mild symptoms.
The survey found that the highest number of infected came from the AB blood group, closely followed by the B blood group, while the O group people showed the lowest seropositivity. This, however, does not mean that people with O blood group can let go of all Covid prevention protocols, as people with O blood group are not completely immune to the virus and are developing complications too.
With a sample size of over 10 thousand people countrywide, the data has been analysed by a group of 140 doctors.
Additionally, the research report, which is based on a nationwide seropositivity survey conducted by CSIR, indicates that those who consume meat are more susceptible to Covid-19 than vegetarians. The high fibre content in the vegetarian diet was attributed to this difference in immune response. A fibre-rich diet is also anti-inflammatory, which can prevent post-infection complications and even prevent the infection from manifesting itself.
It has also been suggested in the research that smoking, which is labelled to be a deadly habit, might be acting as a line of defence as it helps increase mucous production. However, the researchers have also stressed that further study is needed into this matter and CSIR does not promote smoking in either case.
“Smoking is known to be severely detrimental to health and associated with multiple diseases and this observation should not be taken to be an endorsement, especially given that the association is not proved to be causal,” the paper said.
