Blood Group Can Be Used As a Predictor Of Viral Infection Risk

(CTN News) – According to Blood Group researchers from Karolinska Institute in Sweden with the collaboration of Octa pharma, the chances of being infected with parvovirus are higher among people with blood group Rh(D) according to a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases involving researchers from the institute.

Viruses such as parvovirus are the cause of the fifth disease, which is a viral infection. A majority of the time, children between the ages of 6 and 12 are affected.

They suffer from common symptoms such as red blotches on their cheeks that can spread to their arms and legs as well. The virus can also infect adults, but many people do not exhibit any symptoms at all when they become infected.

There is now evidence that researchers have been able to demonstrate in a recently published study that a person’s risk of contracting the disease is higher if they belong to the blood group called Rh(D), which is characterized by the Rhesus D antigen.

The Rh blood system is also one of the most common systems for blood typing, along with the ABO system.

There were no other infections among those infected with Rh(D).

In the period between 2015 and 2018, more than 160,000 Blood Group donors in Germany were screened for parvoviruses. In total, 22 people were infected with the virus out of the blood donors. All infected people had the blood group Rh(D) and all of them were Rh(D) carriers.

This finding may be significant, as it has not yet been described, and could indicate that Rh(D) plays an instrumental role in the virus’s entry into the host cell and may also be a novel, as of yet unidentified cellular receptor for the virus,” says Rasmus Gust a fission, associate professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institute and Octa pharma’s project manager.

There was an overrepresentation of women in the field

The researchers were also able to find that the risk of infection was higher during the summer months as well. A higher risk of infection is also associated with women as well as people between the ages of 31 and 40.

Typically, at that age, there are toddlers around. We are aware of the fact that young children who get infected during pre-school get infected with the virus and then infect their parents.

Thus, Rasmus Gust a fission’s contention is that the age and gender distributions reflect the fact that women work in the care professions and take care of children to a greater extent than men,” he explains.

Several of the co-authors of the study are employed by October a pharma on a part-time basis, the company where the study was conducted in collaboration with.

What are the 4 types of blood groups?

There are 4 main blood groups (types of blood) – A, B, AB and O. Your blood group is determined by the genes you inherit from your parents. Each group can be either RhD positive or RhD negative, which means in total there are 8 blood groups.

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