First case in Gujarat: World's rarest 'Ael' blood group found in a blood-donor at Ahmedabad's Shelby Hospital

First case in Gujarat: World's rarest 'Ael' blood group found in a blood-donor at Ahmedabad's Shelby Hospital

Only 40 to 50 people in South East Asia have this blood group

We have all learned in school that there are four blood groups A, B, AB and O and their negative versions. We also learn that people with blood type O are universal donors and people with AB are universal recipients. Among the eight blood groups that we know about, AB negative is considered to be the rarest blood group. However, apart from this there are other very rare blood groups that people hardly know about. One such blood group was newly found in the blood selected of Aman Jain, a 30-year-old blood donor from Jabalpur, in the blood bank of Shelby Hospital, Ahmedabad.

Aman Jain had give his blood 10 times as Group O, but Dr. Yesha N. at Shelby Hospital Blood Bank. Parikh, a consultant transfusion medicine specialist and blood bank officer noted some inconsistent results in blood grouping with abnormal symptoms in his blood sample. A preliminary investigation conducted at Shelby and Dr. After debate with Prabhat Sharma, Group Head, Pathology, Shelby Hospital, his blood sample was mention to Lok Samarpan Blood Bank, Surat for further study, where Dr. Sanmukh R. Joshi conducted a detailed examination of the sample and concluded that the blood group of the donor was O No, as reported earlier but this was Ael blood group, which is a very rare blood group

Only 50 people in the whole of Asia have this blood group

Few weak variants of A and B antigens are known in the medical literature, of which the Ael variant of A antigen is very rare. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of its kind in Gujarat, perhaps, the first case reported from the whole of India. Experts believe that only 40 to 50 people in the entire world, mainly in South East Asia, have this blood type. There are few reports on such cases and efforts are being made to understand them systematically.

Congratulating the team for the discovery, Shelby Hospitals Chairman and Managing Director Dr. Vikram Shah said, “At Shelby we are always committed to thorough investigations using world-class equipment, and this discovery was made possible by our team's adherence to proper protocols and vigilance. In our lab we are planning to provide molecular testing and analysis, cytopathology, transfusion and molecular diagnostics services.”