Blood transfusions
are one of the most frequent lifesaving procedures hospitals do. Blood transfusions are needed for surgery,
after accidents, and for patients with chronic illnesses and cancer. Blood cannot be
artificially made so doctors rely on volunteer donations. To keep the blood
supply safe, every donation is tested for blood type and checked for infectious diseases. About 15%
of blood donors are high school and college students. Every two seconds someone
needs a blood transfusion, which can save up to three lives.
The immune
system
is the body's protection against invaders. It makes proteins called antibodies that act as protectors if foreign
cells enter the body. To get a blood transfusion safely, a person's immune
system must recognize the donor cells as a match to their own cells. If a match
isn't recognized, the cells are rejected. If a patient gets the wrong blood
type, the antibodies immediately set out to destroy the invading cells. This
aggressive, whole-body response can give someone a fever, chills, and low blood
pressure. It can even cause vital body systems (like breathing or the kidneys)
to fail.All blood contains the same basic components of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma, but not everyone has the same blood type. As doctors and scientists do increasingly more research on how a person's blood type can affect their health, there's an incentive to pay attention to whether you're A, B, AB, or O, and whether you're positive or negative.
Blood types predict whether a serious reaction will occur in a blood transfusion. This reaction is called a "hemolytic reaction". It may destroy red blood cells, and cause renal failure. Shock is likely to occur, and death is a possibility.
The Rh factor (Rh meaning Rhesus) is a feature of the second most common blood-group system in human-blood transfusion. It is named after the Rhesus monkey where they were first discovered. Rh is an inherited trait, which refers to a protein on the surface of an individual's red blood cells.
There are a number of human blood group systems. Of these systems, the ABO blood group system and the Rhesus blood group system are the most important. In this system the presence or absence of the A-antigen, the B-antigen and the RhD-antigen are determined. The two main blood groups are ABO and Rh. The ABO blood system has four main types:
·
Type A: This blood type
has a marker known as A.
·
Type B: This blood type
has a marker known as B.
·
Type AB: This blood type
has both A and B markers.
·
Type O: This blood type
has neither A or B markers.
Blood is further
classified as being either "Rh positive" (meaning it has Rh factor)
or "Rh negative" (without Rh factor). There are eight possible blood
types:
·
O
negative:This blood type doesn't have A or B markers, and it doesn't have Rh factor.
·
O
positive:This blood type doesn't have A or B markers, but it does have Rh factor. O
positive blood is one of the two most common blood types (the other being A
positive).
·
A
negative:This blood type has A marker only.
·
A
positive:This blood type has A marker and Rh factor, but not B marker. Along with O
positive, it's one of the two most common blood types.
·
B
negative:This blood type has B marker only.
·
B
positive:This blood type has B marker and Rh factor, but not A marker.
·
AB
negative:
This blood type has A and B markers, but not Rh factor.
·
AB
positive:This blood type has all three types of markers — A, B, and Rh factor.
Which group can donate blood to which other type of blood
group:
·
Group
O
has no antigens, but have anti-A and anti-B. This means that they can only
receive blood from other people in group O, but they can give to any ABO group.
·
Group
A
has anti-B antibodies, so they can only receive blood from people within group
A or O. These two groups do not have the B-antigen. They can donate blood to
people from group A or AB.
·
Group
B
has anti-A antibodies, so they can only receive blood from people within group
B or O. They can donate to groups B or AB.
·
Group
AB
has no antibodies, so they can receive blood from any blood group. However,
they can only donate blood to other people with blood group AB.
“If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans, I bet
you'd find that only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every
last one of them would know the theme song from the Beverly Hillbillies.” (Dave Barry) [i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“20 Amazing Facts about Your
Blood Type” by Morgan Greenwald
·
“5 Reasons Why You Should Know
Your Blood Type” by AdventHealth
·
“Blood type facts for kids” by Kids Encyclopedia Facts
·
“Blood Types” Reviewed by: Maureen F. Edelson
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