This blood type is so rare that scientists call it “golden”—but the pretty name masks the fact that this type can be dangerous for people living with it.
Maybe you know your blood type off the top of your head—or maybe you’re like most Americans and you have no clue. Here’s one reason you should find out: You could have “golden blood.” And while having golden blood might sound exciting, this incredibly rare type has the potential to be deadly for people who have it.
Each of the common blood types—A, B, AB, and O—comes in negative and positive versions (depending on whether or not red blood cells have a protein called an Rh antigen on their surface).
Of these eight main categories, O positive is the most common, according to the Red Cross. AB negative is the rarest blood type in the U.S. Only 0.6 percent of Americans have this type of blood, according to the Stanford Blood Center in Stanford, California.
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“Golden blood”
While that sounds rare, AB negative has nothing on the rarest blood type of all—one that fewer than 50 people in the entire world have—which is why scientists have nicknamed it “golden blood.”
The type, whose scientific name is Rh null blood, was discovered in 1961. Since then, there have been a total of 43 reported cases. Its rarity and unique properties combine to make it potentially dangerous, should someone with this type ever need a blood transfusion.
The reason identifying your blood type is so important is that your red blood cells have receptors called antigens. If you receive a transfusion, your immune system will only accept the antigens that match your blood type.
If you get the wrong type—and a mismatched set of antigens—your immune system will attack the blood cells, with disastrous and potentially deadly results for you. The rarest blood type, Rhnull blood, is so-called because it’s completely missing all types of the most common type of antigen, Rh.
This means that if you have it, receiving a transfusion of a blood type with any Rh antigens will cause your body to reject the blood, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center. Read about 8 unsolved medical mysteries that still stump doctors.
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4 comments
Actually O negative blood type is the rarest blood type. First of all, about 7% of whites have this blood type, 4% blacks have this blood type, and about 1% Asians have this blood type. However, the O negative for whites is for whites only, the 4% of O negative in blacks is only for black, and the 1% of O negative for Asians is for Asians only. The reason that O negative is actually the rarest blood type is because O negative can only take O negative, white AB blood type can take all blood types for transfusions. Since o negative can only take O negative, and 7% of the population has this blood type, that means O negative is actually the rarest.
Actually, the “rarest” blood type is or was called “Bombay type”. It does or did belong to only one family in India. I learned of this while learning blood banking to become medical laboratory technician. But that was many years ago. So I don’t know if it still exists, today.
I had never heard that a certain blood type, say O+ would be specific to race… ??!?
I have never heard of Rhnull blood, either!!!
I do know that there are people that are Rh-, Du+. As a doner, they would be consider to be a Rh+ doner. As a recipient, they would be considered Rh-, and only given Rh- blood.
O, Rh-, Du- is the universal donor. And O, Rh +, is the universal recipient. When I did blood banking, they gave “whole blood.” Now they just give “packed cells” so that lowers the chances of giving a patient antibodies to antigens they have on their red cels.
Lizard people or Aliens.
I have RH- I found out after my 3rd child they had to give me a shot because they said my body would consider my child as a foreign object and it would try to reject it. I thought wow way to go Doc you didn’t discover it until my 3rd child. They told me without the shot my baby could die I could die or we both could bleed to death.