Blood Group 'O', Smokers, Vegetarians May Be Less Susceptible Covid-19

New study by CSIR suggests that Smokers, vegetarians, 'O' blood group are have a lesser risk of contracting the virus.

New Delhi: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) conducted a pan-India serosurvey that involved 40 institutes. The study was to gauge the serological prevalence among its employees and also understand how long antibodies against COVID-19 remain active.

In order to assess the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the Scientific and Industrial Research Council (CSIR) took samples of 10,427 adult individuals working in its laboratories or institutions and their family members on the basis of voluntary participation.

The CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi study recorded that of the 10,427 individuals, 1,058 (10.14 percent) had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

According to a PTI report, the study suggested that smokers are less likely to be seropositive and despite Covid-19 being a respiratory disease, smoking may be protective.

“The study found that higher seropositivity was found for those using public transport and with occupational responsibilities such as security, housekeeping personnel, non-smokers, and non-vegetarians.”

This is different from the earlier studies that claimed that smokers are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms of Covid-19 as smokers have weaker lungs and they also risk transmission from hand to mouth through the act of smoking.

“Use of private transport, lower-exposure occupations, smoking, vegetarianism, and ‘A’ or ‘O’ blood groups appeared to be protective, using seropositivity as a surrogate for infection,” the paper added.

One of the co-authors of the paper, Shantanu Sengupta who is a senior scientist at IGIB told PTI that this is for the first time that a study has been conducted in India wherein individuals have been monitored for three months (35 individuals) to six months (346 individuals) for antibodies including those with probable neutralising activity.