Distribution of ABO and Rhesus Blood Group Patterns Among Patients and Voluntary Blood Donors Attending David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Background: The human ABO type has three alleles (A, B and O); a phenomenon called multi-alleism. Its phenotype could be O, A, B or AB. The composition of an individual’s blood type is always based on inheritance of gene on chromosome 9(9q34) which encodes glycosyl transferases that transfer some oligosaccharide residues to the H antigen, resulting in the formation of antigens for the A and B blood groups but the blood group O lacks such activity. The Rh blood type (Rhesus) is also very important in blood transfusion biology. It is very polymorphic as it contains more than forty-four (44) different antigens. Having adequate information about the distribution and the variations of the different blood groups and Rhesus factor in a population is very critical for the clinical infrastructure of that population, And in a populous and richly diverse country like Nigeria Aims: To determine ABO and Rhesus Blood Group Patterns Among Hospital Patients and voluntary blood donors that attended David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu, Ebonyi state, Nigeria between November 2022 to December 2023. Methodology: The data was collected from the record of the blood donors and patients screened from November, 2022 to December, 2023 in David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu, a tertiary healthcare facility in Ebonyi State, South Eastern Nigeria. Blood samples were collected via venipuncture while the ABO sampling was carried out by the standard rapid tile method. Result: The study was comprised of 237 samples of 70.5% (167) of external blood donors and 30% (70) of the participants were patients of the hospital patients. 76.4% were males while 23.6% were females, with an age range of 17 to 59 years. Blood group O was found to be highest occurring accounting for 53.2% followed by A, B and AB in that order .Most of the blood groups were found to be Rhesus positive (95.8%) while only a minority were Rhesus negative ( 4.2%) among the study population. Conclusion: This findings will be useful in health care planning, genetic counseling and running of an organized, efficient and safe blood transfusion services. Routine screening of blood group O for hemolysin is recommended to prevent hemolytic transfusion reaction. Rhesus negative blood group were found to be few. Institution of blood donor registry is also recommended for easy accessibility to rhesus negative blood for transfusion especially in cases of emergency and also to prevent hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn.