International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | December 2020 | Vol 8 | Issue 12 Page 4405 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Suman S. Int J Res Med Sci. 2020 Dec;8(12):4405-4409 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Original Research Article Susceptibility of blood group ABO and Rh for COVID-19 Sonu Suman* INTRODUCTION On December 31 st 2019, China notified the outbreak of endemic to the World Health Organization. On 7 th January the causative virus was identified as a coronavirus. This was merely onset of a new public health crises affected the whole world. On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Coronaviruses belong to the subfamily Coronavirinae in the family Coronaviridae, are enveloped non segmented positive sense RNA viruses ranging from 60 nm to 140 nm in diameter with spike like projections on its surface giving it a crown like appearance under the electron microscope; hence the name coronavirus. 1 The first fatal case was reported on 11th January 2020. As of Sep 2020, COVID-19 has been confirmed in over 30.6 million individuals worldwide and 5.22 million in India. Total mortality worldwide till now is 972000 and 90000 in India. Infection is transmitted through large droplets generated during coughing and sneezing by symptomatic patients but can also occurs from asymptomatic people and before onset of symptoms. 2 Department of Medicine, Military Hospital, Saugor, Madhya Pradesh, India Received: 04 October 2020 Revised: 09 November 2020 Accepted: 10 November 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Sonu Suman, E-mail: 15680h@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20205314 ABSTRACT Background: The ABO and Rh blood group systems are part of the innate immune system and it has been shown that individuals with different ABO and Rh blood groups differ in their susceptibility or resistance to viral and bacterial infections and diseases. With the discovery of blood groups and subsequent great advancement in its study, many workers have tried to find out a possible relationship between the incidence of these blood groups and the incidence of various diseases. Aim of the study was determine the association between COVID-19 virus infection and blood groups. Methods: This retrospective Case- control observational study was performed among subjects reported to hospital situated at central India for RT PCR-COVID-19 sampling during the period between March to September 2020. Total subjects enrolled were 1682. Results: The individuals with blood group Rh factor positive are found to be more susceptible in acquiring COVID-19 disease. Likelihood of getting COVID-19 is more with factor Rh positive in comparison to Rh negative counterparts. The association is observed statistically between Rh factor and status of COVID-19. Conclusions: In conclusion our results implicate that blood group are found to be associated with the status of COVID- 19 disease. It is observed that the Rh positive individuals are more susceptible when compared to their Rh negative counterparts in acquiring COVID-19 disease. Keywords: Blood group, COVID-19, Disease association