Rare, multiple and yet unrecognized bloods

A woman boards the EFS (French Blood Establishment) bus during a blood donation campaign on December 21, 2017 in Tours, central France.

AFP - GUILLAUME SOUVANT

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) is launching its first rare blood awareness campaign this Monday, November 15.

A phenomenon that would affect nearly a million people in France.

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We all know the traditional classification of rh A, B and O positive or negative and which includes a total of 8 blood groups. If it represents the vast majority of transfusion needs, the real diversity of these groups is however much greater. In total, there are 380 different blood groups of which 250 are considered rare.

Rare, this means that they concern less than 0.4% of the population, for whom there is no alternative for transfusion. The incompatibility of blood can lead, in the worst case, to the death of the patients. In France, nearly a million people would be affected by this phenomenon, but only 10% of them are identified, because can therefore be a carrier of rare blood even if they are placed in one of the eight classic categories. And to discover this rare blood, it requires in-depth analyzes looking at fine genetic characteristics.

According to the French Blood Establishment, for genetic reasons, these groups are particularly represented among people from Africa, the West Indies, but also the Indian Ocean.

There are an estimated 700,000 to one million carriers of a rare group and only 10% know it.

In the event of a transfusion, these people should receive blood as close as possible to their own.

The EFS, which is a public body and the only operator for blood collection in France, therefore calls on these populations to donate blood, in particular to meet the transfusion needs for sickle cell disease patients.

A disease which requires periodic transfusions and which mainly affects populations of African origin.

The French Blood Establishment also recalls that blood donations must be constant, because their lifespan is extremely limited.

Due to lack of stock, it may be necessary to import rare blood.

This is what happened recently with a child who was to undergo a marrow transplant in France and for whom the EFS brought blood from the United States.

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