Blood Transfusion

The Allelic and Phenotypic Frequencies of the ABO and Rh Blood Types in Pregnant Women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: ABO-rhesus (Rh) blood testing screens blood types according to the antigenic properties of red blood cells. Objective: This study reports the allelic and phenotypic frequency distribution of the ABO and Rh blood groups in pregnant women who attended antenatal care (ANC) at Zewditu Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the likelihood for the occurrence of erythroblastosis fetalis (E. fetalis). Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on pregnant women who attended ANC from 2015 to 2019 and typed for ABO and Rh blood groups. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was used to determine the allelic frequency of ABO and Rh blood types. The likelihood of the occurrence of E. fetalis was computed. Results: Among the 2453 women who had been admitted to ANC, 2407 (98.1%) pregnant women who had been typed for the ABO and Rh blood groups were included in this retrospective study. We found that Type O blood was the most common one (38.9%), while Types A (31.3%), B (23.8%), and AB (6.0%) blood were scored with modest to lower proportions. Among blood group-typed women, 94.2% were Rh-positive. The allelic frequency of O was 0.62, whereas A (0.22) and B (0.16) had modest proportions. The allelic frequency of D was 0.76 and d was 0.24. The likelihood of the occurrence of E. fetalis was 5%. Our findings show that both the ABO (χ-squared = 6.1439, df = 3, p value = 0.1048) and the Rh (χ-squared = 0.000103, df = 1, p value = 0.9919) blood groups were segregated at the Hardy-Weinberg proportions. Studies need to investigate the evolutionary forces that have made the ABO and Rh blood types segregate at the Hardy-Weinberg proportion.

Red blood cell transfusion in a tertiary Haitian hospital's emergency department: patient characteristics and availability challenges

BACKGROUND

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusions are essential for many patients admitted to emergency departments (ED). However, accessibility to red cell transfusions is often limited, especially in low-income countries such as Haiti. This article aims to determine the proportion of patients requiring emergency transfusion, transfused patients' characteristics, as well as the response rate and timeliness of blood product delivery for requests made.

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted among all patients with RBC transfusion indications from January to June 2022 at the ED of Mirebalais Teaching Hospital. The parameters studied included transfusion indications, pre-transfusion hemoglobin levels, and delay from prescription to transfusion.

RESULTS

During the study period, 3993 patients received treatment in the ED. The proportion of patients requiring RBCs was 7.69%, including 145 males and 117 females, with a median age of 43 [30-56] years. Only 21.7% of these patients received a transfusion. The average pre-transfusion hemoglobin level was 4.75 ± 1.68 g/dL. The most common transfusion's indications were infection/sepsis (36.74%), trauma (23.48%), and cancer (21.57%). The median time delay from prescription to transfusion was 2.37 [0.97-4.93] days. The study identified significant associations between RBC transfusion probability and patient factors like hemoglobin levels, patient disposition, urgency of RBC request, and length of stay.

CONCLUSION

RBC transfusion requests are frequent in the ED of Mirebalais Teaching Hospital, with a relatively high transfusion delay. Further studies on the relevance of RBC requests and ways to reduce delay from prescription to transfusion would be beneficial to improve this situation.

Tropical diseases: definition, geographic distribution, transmission, and classification

The term tropical diseases encompasses all diseases that occur principally in the tropics. This term covers all communicable and noncommunicable diseases, genetic disorders, and disease caused by nutritional deficiencies or environmental conditions (such as heat, humidity, and altitude) that are encountered in areas that lie between, and alongside, the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn belts. In tropical countries, apart from noncommunicable diseases, a severe burden of disease is caused by an array of different microorganisms, parasites, land and sea animals, and arthropods.