New blood type discovered, only one person possesses it

Serum tubes containing blood samples from patients are processed at the St. Georg Clinic in Leipzig. Photo: DPA

The information was announced by the French Blood Service (EFS) on June 21. The blood group, called "Gwada negative", is the 48th globally recognized blood group.

"She is the only person in the world who is suitable for a blood transfusion of her own," said Thierry Peyrard, a medical biologist at EFS.

In 2011, during routine pre-operative testing, doctors discovered an unusual antibody in the woman’s blood. Experts suspected the existence of a previously unknown blood type. However, due to limited resources at the time, they were unable to clarify the characteristics of the strange blood type.

It was not until 2019, thanks to advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing technology, that the EFS team was able to decode the gene and confirm that this was a previously unknown blood type. The woman, then 54 years old and living in Paris, is believed to have inherited this blood type from both her parents, each of whom carried the rare mutation.

The name “Gwada negative” was chosen to recall her Caribbean (Guadeloupe) roots and “sounds good in every language,” according to expert Peyrard.

The EFS confirmed that the new blood group was officially recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) at its conference in Milan. Until then, the ISBT had recognized only 47 blood group systems.

According to EFS, determining blood type is crucial to ensuring the safety of blood transfusions and organ transplants. For patients with rare blood types, the new discovery is not only of scientific significance, it also contributes to improving medical care.

EFS is responsible for the discovery of 10 of the 17 recognized blood group systems in the past decade. The world's first blood group was discovered by Karl Landsteiner in the early 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1930 for this work.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), blood typing plays a vital role in determining compatibility between donors and recipients. In this context, discoveries like “Gwada negative” help expand modern medicine’s understanding of the biological diversity of the human immune system.

“Identifying new blood types helps improve the quality of treatment for patients with rare blood types,” the EFS stressed in a press release.

The team is continuing to search for similar cases around the world, although the probability of encountering a second person with the "Gwada negative" blood type is extremely low.

VN (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/phat-hien-nhom-mau-moi-chi-1-nguoi-so-huu-414748.html