Abstract:
Background: There is an ethnic disparity in the prevalence of ABO and Rhesus D blood groups and genotypes.
The aim of this present study is to determine the ABO and Rhesus D blood group as well as the
genotypeprofileof the clinical students of African descent attending Bingham University Teaching Hospital Jos
Plateau State Nigeria.
MaterialsandMethods: ABO and Rhesus D phenotype of 110 consecutively-recruited medical students of
Bingham University in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria were determined with the monoclonal anti-A, anti-B, and anti D antisera using the forward cell grouping method to observe for agglutinations. The Hemoglobin
electrophoresis machine using tris buffer of PH 8.6 was used to determine various genotypes. Each subject was
also asked to state his/her known blood group and genotype prior to the study.
Results: Our study shows the following characteristic features of the study population of110 apparently healthy
clinical students: Those of age 18-30 years made up Males 39 (35.5%) and 71females (64.5%) constituted the
subjects in this case study. The profile of the ABO bloodgroup and Rhesus D revealed that 69 (62.7%) were
group O, 20 (18.2%) were group B, 20 (25.6%) were group A and1 (18.2%) were group AB. Furthermore, 106
(96.4%) were Rhesus positive and 4 (3.6%) were Rhesus D negative. Our findings on the genotype profile shows
that 76 subjects claimed they had pre-knowledge of their genotypes prior to this study out of which 40
(52.6%)were incorrect having experimentally tested.
Conclusion: The ABO blood group profile of the 400 level clinical students in BhUTH, is O > B ≥ A >AB, thus
a potential rich blood bank for donors. Advocacy and awareness on the need to stock blood products in Blood
banks and the advantages surrounding blood donation.
