 "What is rare ‘Golden blood’ which has nine donors in the world?")
While most people have heard of the different blood groups – A, B, AB and O to name a just few – not many would be familiar with ‘Golden Blood’.
No, it’s not a euphemism like ‘blue blood’ (meaning one of noble birth).
Let’s take closer a look at ‘Golden blood’:
What is it?
‘Golden blood’, also known as Rhnull, is the world’s rarest blood type.
First found in an Aboriginal Australian woman, Rhnull is estimated to occur in 1 in 6 million individuals, according to the National Library of Medicine website.
The blood type was named Rhnull because it is missing the most all the antigens in the Rh system, which is the largest blood group system.
‘Golden blood’ was first referenced in 1961 in a study published in the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association by GH Voz, chief serologist of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Perth, Australia, and his colleagues.
Until then, doctors assumed a person lacking all Rh antigens would never even make it out of the womb alive, as per Discovery.
The name itself was coined by R Ceppellini three years later.
But don’t be fooled by its golden name – the blood type is transmitted via an autosomal recessive mode (abnormal genes which have disease traits passed down through families).
Quick Reads
View AllConsanguineous marriage – between individuals who are closely related – is thought to play an important role in the creation of this type of blood group, as per the website.
Less than 50 people in the world are known to possess it at the moment – four of those in China alone.
Global Times reported in August that a hospital in East China’s Jiangsu Province recently found two women with Rhnull blood.
The blood was found in a female patient with severe anemia while testing her blood type and antibody – and then in her elder sister.
The discovery racked up a staggering 620 million views and comments on Chinese social media, according to the newspaper.
Why is it called ‘Golden Blood’?
It is nicknamed ‘Golden blood’ both for its rarity and its lifesaving capability for those with rare blood types within the Rh group.
According to The Atlantic, the blood is given to patients in only extreme circumstances, and after very careful consideration, because it may be ‘nigh on impossible’ to replace.”
There are only nine active donors in the world, according to The Smithsonian.
Unfortunately, this means that anyone needing a replenishment for this blood type will have look long and hard to find a donor.
An example of this came in the UK in October when the Telegraph reported that the National Health Service was running extremely low on supplies of ‘Golden blood’ platelets.
With inputs from agencies
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