Golden blood: the rarest blood in the world

[Guest Nicole SG]

We explore the history of blood types and how they are classified to find out what makes the Rh-null type important to science and dangerous for those who live with it.

KEVIN DICKINSON

07 October, 2018

• Fewer than 50 people worldwide have 'golden blood' — or Rh-null.
• Blood is considered Rh-null if it lacks all of the 61 possible antigens in the Rh system.
• It's also very dangerous to live with this blood type, as so few people have it.

Golden blood sounds like the latest in medical quackery. As in, get a golden blood transfusion to balance your tantric midichlorians and receive a free charcoal ice cream cleanse. Don't let the New-Agey moniker throw you. Golden blood is actually the nickname for Rh-null, the world's rarest blood type.

As Mosaic reports, the type is so rare that only about 43 people have been reported to have it worldwide, and until 1961, when it was first identified in an Aboriginal Australian woman, doctors assumed embryos with Rh-null blood would simply die in utero.

But what makes Rh-null so rare, and why is it so dangerous to live with? To answer that, we'll first have to explore why hematologists classify blood types the way they do.

Read more: https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/rarest-blood-type-world?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1