Some people get very sick from COVID-19 and others less so. The reason why may be linked to a person's blood type.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday looked at blood types of about 2,000 patients in Europe with severe COVID-19 and compared them to several thousand other people who were healthy or who had only mild or no symptoms.
The scientists found those with Type A blood were more likely to have severe disease while those with Type O were less likely.
The findings are similar to what scientists discovered during the SARS outbreak — that those with Type O blood were less likely to develop a severe case of the illness.
In fact, blood type has been linked to an increase in developing other illnesses like cholera, recurrent urinary tract infections and ulcers that can cause stomach cancer.
The director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University said more studies still need to be done on blood types in relation to the coronavirus, but that the information is "well worth publishing and getting out there."
Contains footage fromCNN.
