A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of a new blood type, dubbed “Gwada negative,” France’s blood supply agency has announced.
The announcement was made 15 years after researchers received a blood sample from a patient who was undergoing routine tests ahead of surgery, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) said on Friday.
I’m glad they chose an easy to remember name.
It’s no worse than Rhesus positive/negative. I suppose you could shorten it to G+/-.
Which was incorrect to start with, it has been Rh only for a very long time now.
What was incorrect about it? I’m not a medical person
Rh was orginally named Rhesus because it was thought to be the same as a grouping in Rhesus macaques but was very quickly found to be incorrect. However the shortened form persisted, it is scientifically incorrect as ‘Rhesus’ and related terms only refers to the Rh D antigen and not the other antigens in the system (e.g Rhesus positive = Rh D +).
It is a bit of a mess unfortunately, people still know and understand when people say Rhesus but it is remarkable how it is still all pervasive when it has been incorrect for such a long time.
Thanks for teaching me something interesting, I had no idea.
No problem, its rare i get to talk about my profession (biomedical science) so its fun when I can!
It says she’s the only person on the world like this - she is only compatible with herself so… how do we know this 1) is actually the only person, like how can this even be asserted and 2) is this actually a “blood type” if she is the only one, not just a genetic fluke?
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we know there is one person. This does not mean you can’t assume there are more. It is actually very likely that one of the parents had it, too
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it is a blood type, even if rare/unique. This also implies that there are many more undiscovered blood types. I believe most humans never get their blood type analyzed, so chances are high there are many more mutations.
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Whut
