A-B-O and Rhesus Blood Group Distribution among Students of Benue State University Makurdi, Nigeria

The knowledge of ABO and Rhesus D blood group is important in blood transfusion services, genetic studies of populations and also resolving medico-legal issues like disputed parentage. Literature search revealed that there is dearth of information about the distribution of ABO blood and Rhesus D among indigenes of Benue State where the highest number of unique tribes: Tiv, Idoma, Igede and a minority of other tribes reside. Therefore this study aims at investigating the pattern of the distribution in this population. A total of 1672 newly admitted students were randomly recruited for this study. This consisted of 930 males and 742 females. The tribes of these students were obtained, blood group and Rhesus factor determination was carried out by the antigen-antibody agglutination test. Result revealed that the tribal distribution of the sample population was; 920 (55.0%) belonged to the Tiv tribe, 425 (25.4%) Idoma, 270 (16.1) Igede and 57 (3.4%) were other tribes. The distribution of ABO blood group showed that blood group O constituted 52.5% (n=919), followed by group B with 24.5% (n=409), group A was 18.4% (n=307) and AB was 2.2 (n=37). The distribution of Rhesus D antigen showed that 96.7% (n=1617) were Rhesus and 3.3% (n=56) were Rhesus negative. In conclusion, the pattern of ABO and Rhesus blood group distribution of this population is similar to those reported in other regions of the country