Rupa Das1 , Sulata Choudhury2 , Narayan Chandra Mallik3
BACKGROUND Numerous associations have been reported between the ABO blood group system and some disease conditions such as skin cancer, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, and HIV infection. There are many reports on the association of ABO blood groups with susceptibility, resistance, and severity of malaria infection especially in relation to P. falciparum infection. Individuals with blood group “A” have been found to be highly susceptible to falciparum malaria whereas blood group “O” is said to confer protection against complicated cases. Low parasitaemia and uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria cases among blood group “O” individuals have been observed. Balangir and Baripada are malaria endemic areas of the state of Odisha. Several researchers have studied the relationship between ABO blood types and malaria susceptibility but with contradictory results. However, most of these studies are retrospective. Hence, BB Medical College, Bolangir and PRM Medical College, Baripada, being new government medical colleges, the 1st semester students, most of whom are not from these endemic regions nor have stayed under these conditions, were screened for malaria for a two-year period after determining their blood group for correlation. METHODS This is a prospective study, conducted at PRM Medical College & Hospital, Baripada and Bhima Bhoi Medical College, Bolangir, Odisha. The first-year students admitted to these two medical colleges were taken up for study after taking informed consent. Their blood group type in relation to ABO and Rh were ascertained by agglutination method. Then they were followed up for a period of two years for malaria by screening all cases developing fever by both immunologic methods and observing malaria parasites microscopically. RESULTS Out of 180 students who agreed to enrol for the study, 74 (41.11%) had blood group O, 65 (36.11%) had blood group B, 32 (17.77%) had blood group A and 9 (5%) were AB. 169 (93.8%) were Rh positive and only 11 (6.1%) were Rh negative. Out of those enrolled, 10 students were excluded from follow up as they were local students and suspected to be resistant to malaria. During a follow up period of two years, only 34 students developed malaria of which 18 were blood group O, 14 were blood group B and 2 were of blood group A. CONCLUSIONS Even though the medical colleges were located in malaria endemic areas, only 34 students enrolled in the study suffered from it over a period of two years. This low incidence could be due to hygienic conditions in the new medical colleges provided to the medicos. There was no casualty due to the disease.
