title: ABO-blood-group types and protection against severe, Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
abstract: Although the ABO blood group of the human host has been reported to influence malarial infection, there have been few clinical observations on this effect. A hospital-based, comparative study was therefore performed to investigate the relationship between blood-group type and severe disease i nPlasmodium falciparum malaria. Overall, 243 cases of malaria (163 uncomplicated and 80 severe) and 65 patients with severe, non-malarial infections were studied. In terms of ABO-blood-group composition, the patients with severe malaria were significantly different from the patients with the uncomplicated disease (P<0.001) and also from a population control described previously (P<0.0001). The patients with uncomplicated malaria or severe but non-malarial disease were, however, similar to the population control. The cases of severe malaria were significantly less likely to be of blood group O (P=0.0003), and significantly more likely to be of group AB (P<0.0001), than the patients with nonsevere malaria. It appears that individuals who are of blood-group O are relatively resistant to the severe disease caused by P. falciparum infection.
authors.affiliation: Malaria Research Unit, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, P.O. Box 271, Colombo, Sri Lanka. slpathirana@sltnet.lk
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Pathirana
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Alles
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bandara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Phone-Kyaw
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Perera
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Wickremasinghe
authors.forename: K N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Mendis
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Handunnetti
mesh_terms: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System / Q000032:analysis*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System