Article on Bombay Blood Group

BHOPAL: In a first of its kind case in India, a tribal woman in Madhya Pradesh has been found to have the rare blood group, Para-Bombay B.

She is the fourth person in the country to have the rare blood group of Para-Bombay and first in India identified to have the blood group, Para-Bombay B, doctors in Madhya Pradesh government-run Jay Arogya Hospital (JAH) in Gwalior disclosed to this newspaper on Wednesday.

“A pregnant woman was admitted in the hospital for delivery. We were shocked and surprised to find during her blood test that she has the rare blood group, Para-Bombay B.

This is the first time in India a Para-Bombay blood group case has been recorded”, head of blood bank in the JAH Dr D.C. Sharma said. Earlier, three other blood groups of this segment, Para-Bombay A, Para-Bombay O and Para-Bombay AB have been reported in three hospitals in Vellor, Tirupati and Chennai.

The tribal woman, Sapna Jogi, hailed from Murari village in Bhind district in Madhya Pradesh. She had delivered a baby boy in JAH on September 13.

According to Dr Sharma, Para-Bombay cases are relatively more endemic in China where one person out of 12,000 is found to have the blood group. In Mumbai, Para-Bombay O blood group has been found in one in 10,000 people belonging to a particular sect, he added.

“The Para-Bombay B blood group is an accidental finding. There may be many such cases particularly among the tribal people in Bhind district”, he added.