Blood type may increase the chances of getting COVID-19 – National

The blood type can increase a person’s risks of having COVID-19 and of suffering greater complications during treatment of the disease. which signal the investigations of Canadian and Danish scientists. In two surveys published in Blood Advances magazine, they show how they analyzed the profile of those infected with the new coronavirus and noticed a smaller number of people with type O blood among patients.

Experts also detected a greater number of more severe complications among individuals with blood A and AB. For them, the findings may help to develop better approaches MDIC.

The role of the type sanguneo in predicting the risk and complications of Sars-CoV-2 infection is still poorly understood. In search of answers, researchers compared the health record data of more than 473,000 Danes who tested positive for covid-19 and more than 2 million people without the disease (control group). They found, in the infected, a smaller number of people with blood type and a greater number of people with types A, B and AB.

New analyzes have led to the conclusion that people in group O have 13% less risk of being affected by covid-19. On the other hand, group A is 9% more likely to have the disease, and AB, 15%. The rate of group B was not significant. The team found no significant difference in the infection rate between types A, B and AB. “Among these three subtypes, none of them obtained rates considered to be very high, which pointed to a greater risk than the others,” the article points out.

The researchers explain that the distributions of blood groups vary between ethnic subgroups. This caused them to remain attentive to the ethnicity of those analyzed during the study. “The prevalence of blood type can vary considerably in different ethnic groups and different countries. Denmark is a small country, but, very ethnically diverse, this has made it possible for us to carry out an appropriate screening to maintain a solid base of our analyzes ”, says in a statement Torben Barington, a researcher at the University of Southern Denmark and one of the authors of the study.

In another investigation, researchers from Canada noted that blood groups A and AB appear to be associated with an increased risk of complications generated by COVID-19. Scientists examined data from 95 patients – all hospitalized in Vancouver due to disease complications. Those who belonged to both blood groups spent more time in the intensive care unit (ICU), needed more dilysis to treat kidney failure and demanded more use of mechanical ventilation.

“We observed these damages in the lungs and kidneys and, in future studies, we want to investigate the effect of the blood group and covid-19 on other vital organs.” These data are of particular importance as we continue going through the pandemic (…) We need more weapons to help increase the chances of a cure, ”says Mypinder S. Sekhon, a researcher at the University of British Columbia and one of the authors, in a statement.

David Urbaez, infectologist at Laboratorio Exame, in Brasilia, explains that, with the appearance of a new disease, it is normal to try to detect a possible influence of the type sanguneo. “Blood groups always have important implications in this regard, whether in the genetic point of view, or in relation to the proteins present in the red blood cell. These factors can influence the virulence factor of an infection and its mortality. They are also a trademark of human beings, and it is normal that they may be correlated with the evolution of a disease ”, he details.

»Word of expert

More studies needed

»Russians register second vaccine

Russia has registered the second coronavirus vaccine, a step that, in the country, precedes the final phase of clinical trials in humans. The formula, entitled EpiVacCorona, has a “sufficiently high level of security”, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister for Health Tatiana Golikova. The next step consists in tests with 40 thousand volunteers. As it did with the first vaccine, Sputnik V, the Russian government did not give details about the new formula, a stance that arouses skepticism in the scientific community. The announcement was made at a time when the country is facing a resurgence of the disease and a record number of infected: 14,231 new cases in 24 hours.

COVID-19: risk of becoming seasonal

COVID-19 can become a seasonal disease, when most cases are concentrated in a specific time of year. what American scientists are considering in an article published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The researchers arrived concluded analyzing climate models and pandemic data. For them, if a vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 does not appear and the isolation measures are weakened, infections should be more frequent in the cold than in the heat, as occurs with the flu.

The scientists used data on the evolution of covid-19 since its emergence and information on climate variations that occurred in the same period. They build statistical models that help to predict in which scenario COVID-19 can reach its maximum transmission potential worldwide, throughout the year. “To make projections, we also use data climatic monthly averages of temperature and humidity from 2015 to 2019, based on the assumption that these last years are the most adequate to predict a closer future ”, explain the authors in the study, whose first author is Cory Merow, researcher at the Department of Ecology from the University of Connecticut in the United States.

Through the analyzes, the researchers observed that ultraviolet light is associated with a decrease in the rate of growth of infections in relation to other factors analyzed. “Based on these associations with the climate, we predict that COVID-19 will temporarily decrease during the summer if recover in autumn and peak in the next winter (…). It is important to note that our forecasts refer to a possible growth rate in the absence of social distance or other control measures ”, they state.

The researchers also point out that there are still doubts about the possible seasonality of Sars-CoV-2, since factors other than the climate, such as social interventions, can influence the transmission of the virus. “Therefore, the world must remain vigilant, and interventions contnuas it will probably be necessary until a vaccine is available ”, they emphasize.

Queda de CO2 emission histrica na

The social constraints generated by the pandemic led to a marked drop in CO2 emissions in the first half of this year – even greater than the reductions that occurred during the 2008 financial crisis and World War II. THE clculo was made by a group of international researchers and published yesterday in the British journal Nature Communications. According to the authors, the reduced consequence of the effects of social confinement, such as a reduction in the use of transport, for example.

The researchers carried out analyzes based on data on electricity production and road traffic in 416 cities in 56 countries, including Brazil. They accounted for the number of flights and records on production and consumption. The calculations showed that, in the first half of 2020, CO2 emissions from transport fell by 40%; those from energy production, 22%; and industry, 17%. Housing-related emissions decreased by 3%, even with mass teleworking. Scientists attribute this drop to an unusual mild winter (Northern Hemisphere), which limited the need to use heaters.

However, emissions returned to normal levels in July, when most countries eased social isolation measures. “Although the reduction in human activities generated this fall without precedents, the long-term answer cannot be this because it is not viable. We need changes that are generated by the transformation of our energy production and consumption systems ”, defends, in a statement, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Germany, and co-author of the study.