Posted: Wed 14 May 2008 01:39 Post subject: Blood Type
Are different ethnic and/or racial groups predisposed to having a certain blood types? Or are blood types randomly scattered across ethnic and/or racial groups evenly across the globe?
Just wondering...
Oh and I'm AB positive as is my son. His mother is B positive. Not sure what my parents are.
Posted: Wed 14 May 2008 10:43 Post subject: Re: Blood Type
anonymouse wrote:
Are different ethnic and/or racial groups predisposed to having a certain blood types? Or are blood types randomly scattered across ethnic and/or racial groups evenly across the globe?
Blood types vary geographically in groups. In some regions of the world, certain blood types are common and in others they are unknown. But since blood types are invisible they are nowhere used folklorically to classify people into "ethnic groups." In a biological sense, there are no "racial groups" in H. sapiens. (See rule 3.3.1 for details.)
Posted: Thu 05 Jun 2008 01:40 Post subject: Re: Blood Type
anonymouse wrote:
Are different ethnic and/or racial groups predisposed to having a certain blood types? Or are blood types randomly scattered across ethnic and/or racial groups evenly across the globe?
Just wondering...
Oh and I'm AB positive as is my son. His mother is B positive. Not sure what my parents are.
Typing with my medical technologist transfusion experience hat on:
There are dozens of blood antigens - the familiar ABO and Rh and the less familiar but at times medically important ones like Kell, Duffy, Diego, Lewis and others. Some are "private", in that only a few families are positive for the antigen, others are "public"and found widely in at least one large group. They can cause transfusion problems and problems similar to "Rh disease" in newborns.
There is no single blood antigen that is a certain indicator of race or tribe or ethnicity. However, the frequency (how common or rare a given antigen is in an area) varies among different groups. For example, the Diego antigen is almost exclusivly found in persons with American Indian or Asiatic ancestry.
Anthropologists delight in mapping antigen frequency because it can reveal migration and invasion paths.
As a practical matter, in the early 1970s part of the information on the blood donated to the local blood bank was the "race" of the donor (if you knew where to look on the labels). Because Duffy antigen is extremely rare in African populations, whenever we were in need of Duffy negative blood, we would test the ones with a "B" as donor race because it significantly increased our chances of finding Duffy- blood.
Some of the lab techs remembered when the units were prominently marked with donor's race, lest "black blood" be used in a white person. They also remembered putting "white" labels over the "black" labels when they were out of "white blood" of a needed type.
Posted: Fri 06 Jun 2008 13:57 Post subject: Re: Blood Type
TsuDhoNimh wrote:
anonymouse wrote:
Are different ethnic and/or racial groups predisposed to having a certain blood types? Or are blood types randomly scattered across ethnic and/or racial groups evenly across the globe?
Just wondering...
Oh and I'm AB positive as is my son. His mother is B positive. Not sure what my parents are.
Typing with my medical technologist transfusion experience hat on:
There are dozens of blood antigens - the familiar ABO and Rh and the less familiar but at times medically important ones like Kell, Duffy, Diego, Lewis and others. Some are "private", in that only a few families are positive for the antigen, others are "public"and found widely in at least one large group. They can cause transfusion problems and problems similar to "Rh disease" in newborns.
There is no single blood antigen that is a certain indicator of race or tribe or ethnicity. However, the frequency (how common or rare a given antigen is in an area) varies among different groups. For example, the Diego antigen is almost exclusivly found in persons with American Indian or Asiatic ancestry.
Anthropologists delight in mapping antigen frequency because it can reveal migration and invasion paths.
As a practical matter, in the early 1970s part of the information on the blood donated to the local blood bank was the "race" of the donor (if you knew where to look on the labels). Because Duffy antigen is extremely rare in African populations, whenever we were in need of Duffy negative blood, we would test the ones with a "B" as donor race because it significantly increased our chances of finding Duffy- blood.
Some of the lab techs remembered when the units were prominently marked with donor's race, lest "black blood" be used in a white person. They also remembered putting "white" labels over the "black" labels when they were out of "white blood" of a needed type.
Very interesting. I was unaware of most of what you posted and I have two Biology degrees! By the way, I love your name. At first, I was thinking you are VietNamese. But, yeah, now I get it.
Posted: Fri 06 Jun 2008 14:00 Post subject: Re: Blood Type
anonymouse wrote:
Are different ethnic and/or racial groups predisposed to having a certain blood types? Or are blood types randomly scattered across ethnic and/or racial groups evenly across the globe?
Just wondering...
Oh and I'm AB positive as is my son. His mother is B positive. Not sure what my parents are.
With your blood type, it is easy to determine what the parents are, since you have both the A and B antigens. So, one of your parents is A and the other is B. Only one of them would have to be Rh positive, but they could both be, also.
Your son got his A from you, Pops. If you and his mother have more kids, some of them can be B positive as well.
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By the way, I love your name. At first, I was thinking you are VietNamese. But, yeah, now I get it. 