The association of ABO blood group and urinary schistosomiasis in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia

The present study was carried out in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia to determine if there was any relationship between the blood group of the human host and urinary schistosomiasis. Patients and Urine and blood samples were collected from 370 children (95 infected and 275 healthy controls) aged 5 to 15 to examine urinary schistosomiasis, hemoglobin concentration and to type blood groups. There were 23 (47.9%) blood group A, 11 (22.9%) blood group B and 2 (4.2%) blood group AB children in the severe schistosomiasis category. Blood group O made up only 25% of severe schistosomisis patients compared to 56.3 and 53.1% of the mild and healthy controls, respectively. A significant difference was observed in egg load between children with blood group O, 1.63 (0.39) (mean ± SD) eggs/10 ml urine) and A,1.93 (0.45) eggs/10 ml urine (P = 0.03). Although the mean egg load in children with blood group O was higher than in those with blood group AB, 1.45 (0.21) egg/10 ml urine), the difference was not significant (P = 0.54). As compared to the mild schistosomiasis cases, the case of severe schistosomiasis was more likely to be of type A (SS vs. MS: O vs. A, odds ratio (OR) 0.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.62-11.42) and B (SS vs. MS: O vs. B, OR 0.24, 95% CI 1.24-13.76) than type O. The study showed that on the basis of egg load, used to determine severity of urinary schistosomiasis, children with blood group A and B were highly prone to severe urinary schistosomiasis as compared to children with blood group O.