The new Gwada negative blood type

A rare new blood type has been discovered, so "step aside A, B and O – there's a new player in town", said Gizmodo.

So far, the "Gwada negative" blood type has been identified only in one person: a French woman from the Caribbean island group of Guadeloupe, who is "the only person in the world who is compatible with herself", said an expert.

Exciting discovery 

The announcement of the new blood type has been the cause of much excitement in medical circles. The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said on LinkedIn: "The EFS has just discovered the 48th blood group system in the world!"

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The type could have been discovered in 2011 when the woman, then 54, needed a blood transfusion but no compatible donor could be found, and limited resources meant research into her blood type was shelved.

Then, in 2019, experts were finally able to perform "high-throughput DNA sequencing" of her genetics, which revealed she possessed a unique blood-related mutation inherited from both her parents.

The discovery was officially recognised earlier this month in Milan by the International Society of Blood Transfusion. The blood type's name, Gwada negative, which refers to the patient's origins, and "sounds good in all languages", has been popular with the experts, said Thierry Peyrard, a medical biologist at the EFS.

The hunt is on

Blood types refer to the "particular combinations" of antigens that coat our red blood cells, said Gizmodo. The most common blood groups are O, A and B, but "scientists have discovered over 600 separate antigens that can be sorted into dozens of blood groups".

Categorising of blood groups is about more than "simple curiosity" – it is "medically vital". Understanding them is "critical" for ensuring safe and effective transfusions and organ transplants, as well as identifying certain health risks.

If you inject one person's blood into another person "sometimes it's fine" and "sometimes it's a death sentence", said the BBC. In 1667, the French physician Jean-Baptiste Denys discovered this when he successfully injected lamb's blood into a 15-year-old boy. However, his third transfusion patient died, and the practice was banned.

Blood types were first discovered and understood in 1900 and the knowledge quickly made a real-world impact. During the First World War, blood transfusions were "first performed on a large scale", said the Nobel Prize, writing on X, and "countless lives" were also "saved through surgeries", which had previously been "unfeasible" due to loss of blood.

"Thanks to DNA sequencing the discovery of new blood groups has accelerated" in recent times, said Le Monde, and the hunt is now on for other Gwada negative people, who can match with the first patient.