What is Bombay Blood?

What is the Bombay blood group?

Bombay blood group is a type of blood group that has no ‘H’ antigen. People usually have either of A, B, AB or O blood groups hich have H antigens. For example, a person with A blood group will have type A antigens and anti B antibodies (immune cells that fight against antigens other than their own antigens, in this case they produce antibodies against B). Apart from A, B and O blood group, we also have an antigen known as H antigen.

However, people with Bombay blood group do not have a H antigen meaning they have anti-a, anti-B and anti-H antibodies in their blood. So transfusion of blood from people with blood group A, B, AB or O (which contains H antigens) will cause a reaction (acute haemolytic transfusion reaction) in the body leading to serious health complications. (Read: Mangalore docs perform open heart surgery on woman with rare blood group)

The origin of Bombay blood has yet to be determined. But there are a few places and populations among whom the frequencies are unusually high:

High incidence of Bombay phenotype reported in Orissa of eastern India, among Kutia Kondh tribe [2]. Another study from northwestern Orissa reported an average of 1 in 278 Bombay phenotype among Bhuyan tribal population [3].

Source: Prevalence of Bombay Group Blood in Southern Bengal Population
And here:

Forty-two H-deficient individuals (lacking H antigen on erythrocytes) with anti-H in their sera were found on Reunion Island. A, B, and AB Bombay subjects had small but detectable amounts of A and/or B antigens on erythrocytes. All the H-deficient phenotypes tested were nonsecretors of ABH in their saliva, and one-third were Lewis negative. Fifty-three of the 108 (49%) unaffected members in the 14 Bombay pedigrees analyzed were se/se, showing that the families were selected for the nonsecretor trait, and suggesting that the Bombay probands used to select the families have se/se genotype. In accordance with this concept, all the children from Bombay nonsecretor x unaffected nonsecretor matings were se/se. Segregation of H and Se is compatible with the genetic model proposing that Se and H are closely linked structural genes, and the analysis of the present and previously published Bombay pedigrees strongly supports this model.

Source: H-deficient blood groups ( Bombay) of Reunion Island.
Thank you to Gordon Scherer for bringing the later to my attention.

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Bombay Blood Group