ABO and Rhesus (Rh) blood group antigens are hereditary characters and are useful in population genetic studies, in resolving medico-legal issues and more importantly for the immunologic safety of blood during transfusion. This study is aimed to determine the distribution pattern of the ABO and Rh blood groups among population in Derna city/ Libya and compare it with other data from similar studies within Libya and all over the world. It is a retrospective study, was conducted on 772 blood donors, people who attended different health centres and private laboratories at Derna city. The study period was from January 1st 2018 to April 31st 2019. The subjects of both genders (aged between 18-65 years) were analyzed. Information regarding medical history, ages, sex was also obtained. Blood group was determined by forward and reverse grouping by conventional tube method. The age group and sex of the subjects, frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups were reported in simple percentages. Overall blood group- O was the highest (39.50%) and the second most frequent ABO blood groups was A (28.24 %), while the AB blood group was the lowest (7.90 %). The prevalence of Rhesus positive and negative distribution in the studied population was 90.5% and 5.5% respectively. Blood group frequency with respect to ABO , Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative was found to be shown by formula O> A>B >AB. Knowledge of frequencies of the different blood groups is very important for blood banks and transfusion service policies that could contribute significantly to the National Health System.
Eljamay et al. (Thu,) studied this question.