The world was literally put on hold when a novel coronavirus that originated from Wuhan, China made its way to every corner of the world, with the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the coronavirus disease of 2019 or COVID-19 as a pandemic. The degree of this pandemic is comparable to the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic that struck the globe in 1918, claiming millions of lives. With the mankind’s advancement in the field of science and medicine over the years, we are likely to fare a lot better this time around. However, the damage done by the COVID-19 pandemic, not only in people’s health but also in our livelihood, is very real, and its negative effects might stay with us for the months or years to come.
While it is true that COVID-19 is a high contagious disease, the degree of the virus’ impact on one’s health varies from one patient to another. Some COVID-19 patients only experience mild colds and dry cough, while some develop severe pneumonia-like symptoms. Other patients just run out of luck sometimes as they also develop multiple organ failure apart from a badly damaged pair of lungs.
The big question is why only some people develop deadly symptoms while most managed to survive without having to be intubated or brought to the intensive care unit (ICU). There is one theory that seems to be getting support, and that is the relationship of a patient’s blood type to the severity of his or her COVID-19 symptoms.
People With Blood Type O Appears To Have Mild COVID-19 Symptoms
The first study that tried to determine the relationship of blood type with COVID-19 symptoms was conducted in the epicenter of the pandemic earlier this year, which is Wuhan City. A large sample size was used to see if there is any link between the blood type of a patient and his or her chances of surviving the disease.
This study has shown that patients with Blood Type O appear to have stronger resistance against severe COVID-19 symptoms such as lung damage. These patients did not have the need to be transferred to the ICU or be hospitalized as their symptoms can be managed at home. An even good news to those people with Blood Type O is that only a small percentage of COVID-19 patients has the same blood type.
Those people who are lucky to survive severe COVID-19 symptoms face an uncertain future due to the long-term effects of the virus on their bodies. If you are a physical therapists, you can check out these physical therapist job opportunities so that you may be able to help these COVID-19 survivors who want to get their lives back to normal.
Patients With Blood Type A Do Not Fare Well From COVID-19, Studies Show
On the other hand, those COVID-19 patients with Blood Type A appear to have the worst luck, as most of the patients in Wuhan who have this blood type experience severe pneumonia-like symptoms. What’s worse is that they tend to catch bad complications that make their situation even worse, such as kidney, heart, and liver failures. In this case, patient should be more careful in choosing the food that they eat to make sure that there will no health complications.