Every human is different, and with modern medicine making strides a common phrase used nowadays is that there are no illnesses, just ill people. That is used to symbolize our uniqueness as individuals while still acknowledging that there are things in common amongst all of us. One of the things that we believed was sorted is blood types, of which there are four, plus the positive/negative Rh factor, but it turns out that we should not have been as confident in our approach, as a brand-new blood type has been found in a 68-year-old woman originally from Guadeloupe.
The main thing with this new blood type is that it is not just rare, it is unique and it has only been found in this woman, which has made scientists call it “Gwada negative.” What this means is that she is the only known person on the planet with this type, and the only one compatible with her own blood.
The science of blood types
To be fair, the classification of blood types is a bit more complex than we have stated at the beginning. Prior to “Gwada negative” there were 47 recognized blood types, according to the International Society of Blood Transfusion, and now there are 48. But this type is special not just because it is rare, but because it challenges the way we classify and understand blood altogether.
The story begins in 2011 when this woman was prepping for a routine surgery in Paris, and during standard blood tests, something strange popped up, which is that her blood did not fit any known type. Since the technology at the time was not advanced enough, this case sat unresolved until 2019, when improvements in genetic sequencing brought new tools to the table.
Researchers from the French Blood Establishment dug back into her case and after two years of deep genetic analysis, they pinpointed a never-before-seen mutation in a gene called PIGZ. This gene plays a role in how certain proteins stick to the surface of red blood cells, and because of this rare mutation, her red blood cells do not look like anyone else’s. Normally, blood types are based on antigens that sit on the outside of red blood cells, which is what determines whether blood is a match or a threat.
The usual ones are the ones that we mentioned in the beginning, A, B, AB, O, and the positive/negative Rh factor, but there are other rarer factors, often based on unique genetic traits. The problem with these rare types is that if people ever needed a transfusion they would not be able to get it from anyone else alive, making any emergency they may be in even scarier.
Plus, these ultra-rare blood types could be life-threatening if not identified properly, especially during transfusions or organ transplants when one wrong match could be fatal. That is why some experts are pushing for rare-blood donor registries and more genetic screening in underrepresented regions.
For now it appears that the mutation is recessive, meaning that the “Gwada negative” woman got a copy from both parents, who likely never knew they were carriers. But this opens a new line of questions, like are there others walking around with one copy of the mutation? Could there be more people with this hidden blood type, especially in Guadeloupe and surrounding Caribbean islands, where complex genetic mixing over centuries might have preserved rare traits like this?
The only way to find out is to do more research, especially in the area, and launch even more screenings and studies to see if there might be other cases hiding in plain sight.