Abo-blood groups involvement in the malaria infection into patients in southern areas of Côte d’Ivoire

Background: Malaria, sometimes called the “King of Diseases” is one of the oldest and most frequently occurring infectious diseases in humans. Findings have shown that in malarious areas of the world, a higher proportion of the population has O-group than other groups. Thus,the ABO blood group systems are very important clinical tools that are usually used in blood transfusion but also their associations with various disease conditions have been widely reported. Here, this study investigated the distribution of these blood group systems and assessed the association of malaria infection with the ABO blood groups among patients in health centers of Jacqueville and Tiassalé, Côte d’Ivoire. Methods: Blood specimens from veinous of 132patients aged between 0-71 years were examined for malaria parasites using thick drop technical. ABO and Rhesus blood group antigens tests were also performed using standard tile protocols. Of all the children admitted into the study, 445 were sick while 285 were apparently healthy. After determinizing Hemoglobin concentration by automated (ALPHATEC SCIENTIFIC® 34) hematology analyzer, ABO bloodgroups and rhesus factor grouping were done by antigen-antibody agglutination test using slide method and commercially available anti-A, anti- B, anti-AB and anti-D monoclonal antibodies. Results: The prevalence of malaria was 52.27 % with 50.10 % and 50.70 % at Jacqueville and Tiassalé respectively. The O-group was be predominant group with 50.82 % at Jacqueville and 46.48 % at Tiassalé and AB-group weakly represented, 3.28 % at Jacqueville and 4.23 %at Tiassalé. Rhesus positive was hugely represented at Jacqueville like Tiassalé with 93.44 % and 94.37 % respectively. The malaria infection was not associated with gender (p = 0.63 at Jacqueville ;p = 0.71 at Tiassalé) but it was associated with ABO blood groups (p = 0.042 ; 95%CI = [1.02-7.02] ; OR = 2.68) with as individuals of O-group appears the risk people who could be exposed over twice more than individuals of other groups. Conclusion: The results suggest that there is not association between malaria infection and gender while there is an association between this infection and ABO group systems and O-group individuals are more are more susceptible to malaria infection compared to other blood groups.