SBTC to create registry for rare Bombay (Oh) blood group

The council on February 15 issued a circular to all blood centres across the state directing them to submit the details of Oh blood donors

Given the acute shortage of blood with the Bombay (Oh) blood group, the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) has decided to prepare a state registry of these donors.

The ‘Oh’ group is generally not stored in blood banks. The reason behind it is mainly its short shelf-life ranging between 35 to 42 days and the rarity of the blood type. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

The council has directed all blood centres across the state to submit details of the rare blood group donors, said officials on Sunday.

The council on February 15 issued a circular to all blood centres across the state directing them to submit the details of Oh blood donors.

Mahendra Kendre, assistant director of SBTC, said, the council has decided to make a state-wide registry of blood donors with this rare blood group.

“The registry will help the council to ask the donors to donate blood at the time of emergency. Currently, the blood centres have a registry of blood donors with the Oh blood group at their level. They have been asked to share the same,” he said.

As per the officials the Oh blood group is deficient in expressing antigen H and its RBC has no H antigen. The Bombay blood group is very rare with an incidence of 0.0004% in the total human population and an incidence as high as 1 in 10,000 (0.01%) in some specific populations in Mumbai.

The ‘Oh’ group is generally not stored in blood banks. The reason behind it is mainly its short shelf-life ranging between 35 to 42 days and the rarity of the blood type.

Kendre said, in Maharashtra, there are only 200 blood donors with Oh blood group.

“These donors will be asked to refrain from donating blood as regular blood donors and only donate blood when asked. The same blood can be also shared with interstate blood councils to save lives,” he said.

The council further stated in the order, “The SBTC is intending to update the registry of ‘Bombay’ (Oh) blood group. There are constant calls from patients all over Maharashtra and the rest of the country to provide blood of the donor possessing the ‘Bombay’ (Oh) blood group to the SBTC to the Life Blood Council, NGO which is working to provide this blood to the patients. Intending to provide a savings supply to such needy patients, the SBTC intends to update the registry of ‘Bombay’ (Oh) Blood group.”