Blood Group-- so rare that fewer than 50 people have it in the world
We’ve all learned at school about the basic
blood types - A, B, or O, as well as positive or negative Rh. And while
this basic understanding of blood types can describe the vast majority
of the world population, it overlooks some people whose blood doesn’t
fit these constraints. The rarest and most precious blood type in the
world falls within that last category. It’s called Rh-null, and fewer
than 50 people worldwide are known to have this rare blood.
How is Rh-null different from Rh-?
To understand how someone can have an Rh-null blood type, we must remind
ourselves what determines a blood type, to begin with. Blood type is
identified through the presence and absence of certain sugars and
proteins that attach themselves to blood cells that are called antigens.
One of the most common antigens is the RhD protein, which is somewhat
mistakably known as either Rh+ when it’s present or Rh- if it’s not. In
reality, there are more antigens in the Rh group, but more on that
later. The reason why these antigens are so important is that they can
trigger the production of antibodies and incompatibilities can be
dangerous to one's health.
When someone who doesn’t have a specific antigen, let's say RhD-,
receives blood from someone who does (RhD+), antibodies are produced
that trigger an immune response in the body, attacking the newly
transfused blood, which could potentially have a lethal outcome. That’s
why it’s important to match up blood types during a blood transfusion.
Now, there are actually 342 such known antigens in humans, and only
roughly half of those, around 160, are common. If you don’t have an
antigen that’s present in 99.9 percent of people, your blood is
considered super rare, and finding a donor will be tricky. But believe
it or not, there are also those people whose blood is even more scarce -
the ones who lack an entire group of antigens.
The Rh group, formerly known are Rhesus, is the largest such group that
includes 61 antigens, and medical scientists first thought that this
group is necessary for survival and that people lacking the entire Rh
group would simply never be born or die shortly after being born.
The Golden Blood
In 1961, they realized that they were wrong, as one Aboriginal woman in
Australia had no antigens belonging to the Rh group at all. This was the
first recorded case of the Rh-null group, the rarest blood in the
world. Since 1961, only 43 people with this rare blood type have been
found.
“It’s the golden blood,” stated Dr Thierry Peyrard, the Director of the
National Immunohematology Reference Laboratory in Paris. Not only
because it’s so rare, but also because it has lifesaving capabilities.
This is because it’s considered universal and can be given to anyone
with a rare Rh blood type during a lifesaving medical procedure. Rh-null
blood is in extremely high demand both for research purposes and
lifesaving blood transfusions, but only 7 of the 43 known Rh-null people
are known to regularly donate blood.
Needless to say, life with the rarest blood in the world is no ordinary
life, it's a lifetime of anxieties, blood donations, and self-imposed
restrictions. This is mainly because the bodies of these people can only
accept Rh-null blood, and the remaining 7 souls willing to offer a
transfusion are scattered far and wide across the globe - Japan,
Ireland, the U.S, China, and Brazil.
One of them, a man from Switzerland, stated in an interview that his
childhood was deprived of camps and many recreational activities because
his parents were afraid he would get hurt. To this day, he can’t travel
to countries without advanced medical facilities, and drives VERY
carefully to avoid accidents at all costs, since getting blood from
across-the-border would be nearly impossible, especially in an emergency
situation.
Thus, one could say that, for once, most of us can be happy to be part
of the 99%.