




































East


East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, Issue. 2, 1-10 
 

 

 

 

*Corresponding author: 

Email:  basliel2018@gmail.com,  +251 938949495  https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/eajbcs.v3i2.1S 
 

 

 

 

Phenotypic and Allelic Distribution of the ABO and Rhesus Blood Groups among students at 

Hawassa University, Ethiopia 

Mihret A. Hailu, Wendawek A.  Mengesha, and Zelalem G. Tolesa*. 

 

Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Hawassa University, P.O.Box 

05  

 

 

KEYWORDS:  

ABO blood; 

Allele frequency; 

Ethiopia; 

Phenotypic frequency; 

Rh blood 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT 

A prior information on the distribution of ABO and Rh groups is imprtant for 

management of bld bank and transfusion, genetic counseling, anthropological studies, to 

study the association of blood groups and diet; to investigate the association between 

blood and diseases. This study intended to estimate the frequency of ABO and Rh bloods 

and investigate gene diversity at both loci among students in Ethiopia. A descriptive cross-

sectional survey was employed involving randomly selected two thousand thirty nine 

(2039) university students (1054 males and 985 females) with an age range of 18–29 

years. Blood groups were determined based on agglutination reaction. The most abundant 

blood group was found to be O (42.47%), followed by A (27.86%), B (21.87%), and AB 

(7.80 %). The frequency of Rh+ and Rh- were 90.88% and 9.12 %, respectively. The 

combined blood types showed O+, A+, B+ and AB+ were: 38.60 %, 25.20%, 20.10%  and 

7.00%, respectively. Slightly different distribution pattern of ABO blood group was 

observed among   females from Amhara region (O> B> A>AB). The distribution of ABO 

phenotypes from Addis Ababa and Amhara did not differ significantly from those 

expected under the Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium. A high level of gene diversity was 

observed for both loci. In general, the O blood type is most frequent and followed by A, B 

and AB. A similar pattern of distribution of the ABO and Rh blood groups was found in 

male and female study subjects. The present study will generate a baseline data that could 

be used in blood bank management and transfusion, genetic counseling, population 

genetic and anthropological studies, and for disease management. 

 

INTRODUCTION 

The knowledge on the distribution of ABO and 

Rh groups is important for the management of 

blood bank and transfusion, genetic counseling, 

population genetics, and anthropological studies 

(Liu et al., 2017; Canizalez-Román et al., 2018) 

and to study the association of blood groups and 

diet, to relate the association between blood and 

diseases (Puryear, 2017). Individuals with the O 

blood type are thought to be resistant to viral 

disease (Zhao et al., 2021) but susceptible to 

some bacterial infections (Harris et al., 2005) 

and Hepatitis B virus (Jing et al., 2020). People 

with  the A blood group have a higher risk, 

whereas people with blood group O have a 

East African Journal of Biophysical and Computational Sciences 

Journal homepage : https://journals.hu.edu.et/hu-journals/index.php/eajbcs 
 

Hawassa University

College of Natural & Computational Sciences

Year 2021

Volume xx No xx

 

 
Research article

mailto:mereba480@gmail.com
https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/eajbcs.v3i2.1S


East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

2 

lower risk for SARS-Cov-2 infection and 

COVID-19 severity (Zhao et al., 2021). 

The frequencies of ABO and Rh blood groups 

differ with ethnicity, geographical locations, 

race, population movements, natural selection 

and genetic drift. In the USA, and Mexico the O 

type is the most frequent, followed by A, B and 

AB (Garratty et al., 2004; Canizalez-Román et 

al., 2018). Nevertheless, in China (Liu et al., 

2017), type A is the most common, followed by 

O, B and AB. In southeast Asia, A and B blood 

groups were interchangeably taking the most 

common blood group place, while AB was the 

least common (Dewan, 2015). Type O is the 

most frequent whereas AB is less common in 

most African countries (Ndoula et al., 2014; 

Anifowoshe et al., 2017). The frequency of Rh- 

blood is less or rare in African and Asian 

countries (Anifowoshe et al., 2017; Liu et al., 

2017). The available limited data indicate that 

the O blood is more frequent but AB is least 

common in Ethiopia (Golassa et al., 2017; Fufa 

and Debelo, 2019). 

To date in Ethiopia, there are limited works 

done on the distribution of ABO and Rh blood 

groups and the most are small scale in terms of 

sample size and regional coverage (Golassa et 

al., 2017; Fufa and Debelo, 2019). In this work, 

however, the subjects were originated from 

almost all regions in the country and relatively 

bigger sample size of the study subjects 

involved in the study. Therefore, this study 

intended to eatimate the distribution of ABO 

and Rh bloods and investigate gene diversity of 

both loci among students in Ethiopia. It is 

expected that the data may partly contribute to 

strategies of supply and demand of blood 

products in transfusion services countrywide 

and could have consequences in investigating 

vulnerability to various disease conditions 

known to be connected with the blood groups. 

MATERIALS AND METHODS 

Study area and study subjects 

The study was conducted in four campuses 

(College of Agriculture, Main Campus, Institute 

of Technology and; College of Medicine and 

Health Sciences) of Hawassa University. It is 

assumed that the regional and ethnic diversity of 

the Ethiopian population could be represented in 

the university student population. In Ethiopia 

students from different regions are randomly 

allocated to federal universities in the country, 

we therefore, believe that, student populations in 

Hawassa University could represent the regional 

and ethnic diversity in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has 

eleven regional States and two city 

administrations. 

A descriptive cross-sectional survey was 

employed involving randomly selected two 

thousand thirty nine (2039) students (1054 

males and 985 females) with an age range of 

18–29 years. The selected study subjects 

originally came from eight regional states (Afar, 

Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, Gambela, 

Oromia, Southern Nation Nationalities and 

People State (SNNPRS), Somali and Tigray) as 

well as from Addis Ababa (AA) and Dire Dawa 

(the two city administrations). The inclusion 

criteria for the study were: Ethiopian students 

who are above 18 years old and willing to 

participate in this study.  

Blood group determination  

The ABO and Rh blood group testing was done 

in the Hawassa University students’ clinics, 

using a commercially available kit for blood 



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

3 

grouping (Human Diagnostic, Germany). 

Briefly, blood samples were collected from the 

tip of volunteers’ finger, a drop of anti-A, anti-B 

and anti-D human sera was then added into 5% 

suspension of the collected blood (in principle 

the red blood cell) in normal saline within test 

tubes. The mixture was gently stirred with glass 

rods, and blood groups of the tested individuals 

were determined based on agglutination 

reaction. 

Allelic frequency and gene diversity analysis 

The frequencies of the IA allele (p1), IB allele 

(p2) and IO allele (p3) were calculated based on 

the extension of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium 

(HWE) for multiple alleles with two co-

dominant allele and one recessive allele 

(Hamilton, 2009). Genotypic frequencies were 

calculated under HWE assumptions as [(p1 + p2 

+ p3)
2  =  p1

2+ p2
2 + p3

2  + 2 p1p2 + 2 p1p3 + 2 p2 

p3 = 1]as p1
2 (IAIA) + 2 p1p3 (I

AIO) +  p2
2 (IBIB) + 

2 p2 p3 (IBIO) + 2 p1p2 (IAIB) + p3
2 (IOIO). 

Nevertheless, the Rh system alleles “D” and “d” 

were allocated q1 and q2, respectively, and their 

occurrences were also computed using HWE for 

two allele system [(q1 + q2)
2   = q1

2+ 2 q1q2 + q2
2 

= 1 ] as q1
2(DD),  2 q1q2 (Dd), q2

2 (dd). Gene 

diversity (He) was analyzed according to Nei 

(1973). Percentage was used to express blood 

group phenotypic frequencies whereas allele 

frequencies were estimated/projected using the 

assumption of Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium 

(HWE). The Chi - square test was used to 

compare observed allelic and genotypic 

frequency distributions of the blood group and 

Rh antigens to that expected under the HWE 

(Hamilton, 2009). The level of statistical 

significance was at p<0.05. 

 

 

Ethical Approval  

The study was carried out after getting ethical 

approval of the Institutinal Review Bard 

(IRB) of Hawassa University (Ethiopia), 

College of Natural and Computational Sciences 

(Ref. No. IRB/203/11; Date: 05/03/2019). 

Accordingly, the study objectives were 

explained to students, and written consent for 

participation in the study was obtained. 

RESULTS  

Distribution of ABO and Rh blood groups  

The frequencies of O, A, B and AB blood types 

among the participants were: 42.47%, 27.86, 

21.87% and 7.80, respectively. The O blood 

group had the highest frequency while blood 

group AB had the least frequency (Table1).  The 

study showed that the ABO blood group pattern 

was in the order of O > A > B > AB. 

Statistically, no significant variation was noted 

in the proportions of the A, B, O and AB blood 

groups among the considered regions  (χ2 
0.05, 12 

= 15.055; p < 0.05). But there were slight 

differences in the frequencies of ABO blood 

types. In terms of each blood type the highest 

proportion of the A phenotype (30.12%), the B 

phenotype (25.47%) and O phenotype (44.04%) 

was observed in SNNPRS, Amhara and Addis 

Ababa, respectively (Table1). The proportion of 

ABO blood antigens significantly different from 

those anticipated under Hardy–Weinberg 

Equilibrium (HWE) (χ2 
0.05, 1 = 10.498; p < 0.05) 

for the combined data set, Oromia region (χ2 
0.05, 

1 = 7.304; p < 0.05), SNNPRS (χ2 
0.05, 1 = 6.027; 

p < 0.05) and ‘Others’ (χ2 
0.05, 1 = 4.248; p < 

0.05), respectively. However, the distributions 

in Addis Ababa (χ2 
0.05, 1 = 1.063; p < 0.05) and 

Amhara (χ2 
0.05, 1= 0.004, p < 0.05) did not 

deviate from HWE.   



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

4 

 

Table- 1: Phenotypic frequency of the ABO Blood groups and Rh system based on regions/ 

towns  

 Regions     ABO Blood         Rh System  

N**  Type A (%) TypeB (%) TypeAB (%) TypeO (%) Rh + (%) R – (%) 

Addis Ababa 234 62(24.50) 52(22.22) 17(7.26) 103(44.04)   202(86.32) 32(13.68) 

Amhara 691 185(26.77) 176(25.47) 44(6.37) 286(41.39)  635(91.90) 56(8.10) 

Oromia 603 167(27.69) 128(21.23) 53(8.79) 255(42.29)  554(91.87) 49(8.13) 

SNNPRS 437 132(30.21) 77(17.62) 36(8.22) 192(43.94)  393(89.93) 44(10.07) 

Others * 74 22(28.57) 13(17.57) 9(12.16) 30(40.54)  69(93.24) 5(6.76) 

Total 2039 568 (27.86) 446(21.87) 159(7.80) 866(42.47)   1853(90.88) 186(9.12) 

*Afar(1,1,0,2/3,1), Benishangul Gumz (1,1,1,5/8,0), Dire Dewa (1,2,0,1/4,0), Gambela (1,1,0,1/3,0), Somali 

(3,2,1,4/7,3)and Tigray(15,6,7,17/44,1). Numbers in the parenthesis are the numbers of individuals with ABO/Rh 

system, respectively. **sample size. 

 

The frequency of allele O was larger as 

compared to alleles A or B (p3>p1>p2). A 

comparable higher level of gene diversity was 

found in each region for both loci (Table2).  

 

Table- 2: Allelic frequencies and Gene diversity of ABO blood group and Rh systems

Region/City 

 
ABO allele    Rh allele  

ABO Rh ABO*    Rh*  

 

 

 

 

P1 P2 P3 q1 q2 He He HS HT DST GST HS HT DST GST 

AA  0.186 0.16 0.65 0.63 0.37 0.51 0.47         

Amhara 0.182 0.17 0.64 0.76 0.24 0.52 0.37         

Oromia 0.203 0.16 0.63 0.72 0.29 0.53 0.41         

SNNPRS 0.215 0.14 0.65 0.68 0.32 0.52 0.43         

Others  0.238 0.14 0.62 0.74 0.26 0.54 0.39 0.54 0.51 0.04 0.07 0.41 0.42 0.004 0.01 

*The figures are for the entire population. He:gene diversity in a subpopulation; HS: average gene diversity within subpopulation;  HT:  gene 

diversity for the entire population; DST: gene diversity among subpopulation; GST: Gene differentiation among subpopulation; AA; Addis 

Ababa; SNNPRS: Southern Nation Nationalities People Regional State 

The Rh+ blood group comprised 90.88% for the 

overall data set (Table 1). The highest frequency 

of Rh+ (93.00%) was observed for ‘other’ group 

and least was for Addis Ababa (86.32%). In 

Addis Ababa the frequencies of Rh+ and Rh- 

were 86.32 % and 16.68%, respectively. The 

largest frequency of q1 allele and lowest level of 

gene diversity was observed in Amhara 

(Table2). The expected gene diversity was 

highest in Addis Ababa and the lowest from 

‘others’ (Table 2). For the ABO locus, the 

highest frequency of gene diversity was 

observed in the ‘others’ groups (He= 0.535) but 

the lowest was in Addis Ababa (He = 0.512). 



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

5 

The sex specific allele frequency is similar in 

male and female participants (Table3). A unique 

phenotypic (O > B > A > AB) was observed for 

females in Amhara. 

 

Table- 3: Phenotypic, allelic frequencies and gene diversity of ABO blood based on sexes [Male 

(M); Female (F)] 

 Regions   Sexes     ABO blood type  Allelic frequencies* 

 

 

  N A (%) B (%) AB (%) O (%) p1 P2 p3 He 

 Addis Ababa M 119 31(26.05) 27(22.68) 7(5.88) 54(45.37) 0.175 0.155 0.670 0.496 

 

F  115         31(26.95) 25(21.73) 10(8.69) 39(33.91) 0.254 0.220 0.526 0.610 

Amhara M 325 89(27.38) 77(23.69) 22(6.76) 137(42.15) 0.189 0.166 0.645 0.521 

 

F  366 96(26.22) 99(27.04) 22(6.01) 149(40.71) 0.177 0.182 0.641 0525 

Oromia M 320 86(26.87) 70(21.87) 23(7.18) 141(44.06) 0.188 0.158 0.654 0.512 

 

F  283 81(28.62) 58(20.49) 30(10.60) 114(40.28) 0.220 0.170 0.610 0.551 

SNNPRS M 249 75(30.12) 37(14.85) 21(8.43) 116(46.58) 0.216 0.124 0.660 0502 

 

F 188 57(30.31) 40(21.27) 15(7.97) 76(40.42) 0.214 0.159 0.627 0.536 

Others M 39 11(28.20) 7(17.94) 4(10.25) 17(43.58) 0.215 0.153 0.632 0.531 

 

F  35 12(34.28) 7(20.00) 4(11.42) 12(34.28) 0.263 0.172 0.565 0.585 

Total  M 1054 292(27.70) 218(20.68) 78(7.40) 466(44.21) 0.194 0.152 0.654 0.512 

  F  985 276(28.02) 228(23.14) 81(8.22) 400(40.60)  0.201  0.190  0.609 0.553 

*Sex specific allelic frequencies 

 

AB negative case was not observed from Addis 

Ababa. The highest frequency for B+ was from 

Amhara while O+ was highest for Oromia. The 

O+ was observed more than one third of the 

population, while AB- was recorded in less than 

1% (Table 4).  

 

Table- 4: Phenotypic frequencies of ABO blood types based on the Rh system 

Regions/town  
N* 

Phenotype (%) 

A+  A- B+ B- AB+ AB- O+ O- 

Addis  Ababa 234 52(22.22) 10(4.27) 50(21.4) 2(0.85) 17(7.30) 0(0.00) 83(35.47) 20(8.54) 

Amhara 691 171(24.70) 14(2.00) 159(23.00) 17(2.5) 40(5.80) 4(0.60) 265(38.40) 21(3.00) 

Oromia 603 150(24.9) 17(2.8) 117(19.4) 11(1.80) 48(8.00) 5(0.80) 239(39.40) 16(2.70) 

SNNPRS 437 120(27.50) 12(2.70) 71(16.20) 6(1.40) 30(6.90) 6(1.40) 172(39.40) 20(4.60) 

Others 74 21(28.37) 1(1.35) 12(16.23) 1(1.35) 8(10.81) 1(1.35) 28(37.33) 2(2.70) 

Total 2039 514(25.20) 54(2.60) 409(20.10) 37(1.80) 143(7.00) 16(.80) 787(38.60) 79(3.90) 

*N: Sample size (number of students examined) 

 



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

6 

The proportions of the ABO/Rh blood groups 

were significantly different among the five 

regions (χ2
0.05, 28 = 43.033; p <0.05). There was 

a clear variation in the frequency distribution of 

the blood types between males and female 

subjects among the regions. For instance, the 

frequency of the A+ and O+ blood type showed 

a difference between the male and female from 

Addis Ababa (Table5).  

 

Table- 5: Phenotypic frequencies of ABO blood types based on the Rh system for male (M) and 

female (F) subjects 

Regions/city Sex N* 
Phenotype (%) 

A+ (%) A-(%) B+ (%) B-(%) AB+ (%) AB-(%) O+ (%) O-(%) 

Addis  Ababa M 119 25(10.70) 6(2.60) 26(21.84) 1(.84) 7(5.88) 0(0.00) 46(38.65) 8(6.72) 

 F 115 27(24.35) 4(3.47) 24(20.86) 1(0.86) 10(8.69) 0(0.00) 37(32.17) 12(10.43) 

Amhara M 325 82(25.23) 7(2.15) 68(20.92) 9(2.76) 21(6.46) 1(0.31) 131(40.31) 6(1.84) 

 F 366 89(24.32) 7(1.91) 91(24.86) 8(2.18) 19(5.19) 3(0.81) 134(36.61) 15(4.10) 

Oromia M 320 80(25.00) 6(1.87) 65(20.31) 5(1.56) 20(6.25) 3(0.93) 131(40.93) 10(3.12) 

 F 283 70(24.73) 11(3.88) 52(18.37) 6(2.12) 28(9.82) 2(0.63) 108(38.16) 6(2.12) 

SNNPRS M 249 70(28.11) 5(2.01) 35(14.05) 2(0.80) 18(6.12) 3(1.20) 104(41.76) 12(4.81) 

 F 188 50(26.59) 7(3.72) 36(19.15) 4(2.13) 12(6.38) 3(1.59) 68(36.17) 8(2.25) 

Others M 41 11(26.82) 0(0.00) 7(17.07) 0(0.00) 4(9.75) 1(2.43) 17(41.46) 1(2.43) 

 F 33 10(30.30) 1(3.03) 5(15.15) 1(3.03) 4(12.12) 0(0.00) 11(33.33) 1(3.03) 

Total M 1054 268(25.42) 24(2.27) 201(19.07) 17(1.61) 70(6.64) 8(0.76) 428(40.60) 37(3.51) 

  F 985 246(24.97) 30(3.05) 208(21.11) 20(2.03) 73(7.41) 8(0.81) 358(36.34) 42(4.26) 

*N: Sample size (number of students examined) 

 

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 

Distribution of AB and Rh bld groups  

The frequency distribution of ABO blood group 

differs from race to race, population to 

population and differs in different geographical 

areas. This study could serve as an initial 

countrywide report, as the participants were 

recruited from a national university accepting 

students from all corner of the country and 

representing the Ethiopian population. Ethiopia 

has a rich cultural, linguistic, and ethnic 

diversity and is home to over 70 different ethnic 

groups and over 80 living languages (Pagani et 

al., 2012, 2015). Therefore, Ethiopia is an 

important region for studying how genetic 

diversity and differentiation correlate with 

linguistic and cultural diversity. Furthermore, 

the knowledge on the distribution of ABO and 

Rh groups is important for management of 

blood bank and transfusion, genetic counseling, 

population genetics and anthropological studies 

and to study the association of blood groups and 

diet, to relate the association between blood and 

diseases (Dewan, 2015; Liu et al., 2017; 

Puryear, 2017; Canizalez-Román et al., 2018). 

The proportion of AB blood was relatively 

larger compared to previous studies in Ethiopia 



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

7 

(Tesfaye et al., 2015; Fufa and Debelo, 2019), 

this could be due to the wider sampling regions 

covered in this study (Table1). The distribution 

pattern of ABO blood group of females from 

Amhara seems similar to that of the Bengali 

population in Bangladesh (Dewan, 2015). 

Golassa et al. (2017) found two patterns of 

ABO Phenotypes O>A>B>AB [Nilotic people] 

and A>O>B>AB [‘Highlanders] in Gambela, 

southwestern Ethiopia. The results of this study 

are similar to that of previous studies in 

Cameroon (Ndoula et al., 2014), Nigeria 

(Anifowoshe et al., 2017), and Mexico 

(Canizalez-Román et al., 2018). However, the 

distribution differs from reports made in Egypt 

(Abdelmonem et al., 2019), China (Liu et al., 

2017), and Bangladesh (Dewan, 2015). 

Most of the participants in the current study 

were Rh+ (90.88%), while the rest were Rh- 

(9.12%). In general, the frequency of Rh- blood 

is less or rare in African and Asian countries 

(Liu et al., 2017; Abdelmonem et al., 2019). 

Golassa et al. (2017), however, reported a 

relatively higher frequency of Rh- (19.37%) in 

Gambela, southwestern Ethiopia. The overall 

frequency of Rh+ in the current study is 

comparable to Egypt (Abdelmonem et al., 

2019), whereas lower compared to Cameroon 

(Ndoula et al., 2014), and Nigeria (Anifowoshe 

et al., 2017). The proportion of Rh+ in Addis 

Ababa is similar to white non-Hispanic in USA 

(Garratty et al., 2004), but large relative to 

Gambela (Golassa et al., 2017). The proportion 

of Rh- ranged from 7-14%, which is wider 

relative to studies done in Ethiopia (Tesfaye et 

al., 2015; Fufa and Debelo, 2019). Such a large 

range in the proportion of Rh- in this study 

could reflect wider regional coverage – the 

participants are almost from all the regions of 

the country. 

The proportions of O+, A+, B+ and AB+ were: 

38.60%, 25.20%, 20.10% and 7.00%, 

respectively. There was variation in the 

distribution of ABO/Rh between regions. The 

proportion of B+ was higher in the Amhara but 

O+ was higher in the Oromia (Table 4). The O+ 

frequency was found to be over one third of the 

entire population, while AB- was recorded in 

less than 1% of the study population. Similarly, 

in Cameroon (Ndoula et al., 2014), the O+ 

blood group is highly predominant, representing 

about half of the entire population, while AB- is 

very infrequent. 

Allelic and genotypic diversity  

The order of the ABO allele frequency was 

IO>IA> IB, and similar to earlier studies (Ndoula 

et al., 2014; Anifowoshe et al., 2017), but 

differs from Bangladesh (Dewan, 2015), and in 

Egypt (Abdelmonem et al., 2019).The 

frequency of q1 allele in this study is lower 

compared to that of Nigeria (Anifowoshe et al., 

2017). However, a higher level of among 

subpopulation gene diversity (DST) and gene 

differentiation (GST) was found to be 

comparable to Mexican populations at both loci 

(Canizalez-Román et al., 2018). The higher 

level of gene diversity supports the hypothesis 

that Ethiopia is an important region for studying 

how genetic diversity and differentiation 

correlate with linguistic and cultural diversity 

(Pagani et al., 2012, 2015). The distribution of 

ABO phenotypes for Addis Ababa city and 

Amhara are not significantly different from 

those expected under the HWE. If a population 

is in a HWE the genotypic frequency will 

remain stable unless the equilibrium is 

perturbed. That would be a good opportunity for 

the management of blood banks as the 

frequencies of the blood groups will be stable 



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

8 

generation after generation (Ndoula et al., 2014; 

Canizalez-Román et al., 2018). 

Participants from different regions showed a 

similar pattern of distribution for both loci 

which may reflect the complex processes, 

population admixing among the regions 

(Hamilton, 2009; Dewan, 2015; Canizalez-

Román et al., 2018). Although the general 

pattern of distribution of the ABO and Rh blood 

type was similar among different populations, 

there are also slight differences in the 

frequencies of different blood types, genotypes 

and allele frequencies. Such differences of in the 

phenotypic, genotypic and allelic frequencies 

could be due to differences in the culture, 

geography, endemic diseases or population 

admixture (Hamilton, 2009; Dewan, 2015; 

Canizalez-Román et al., 2018). Some of these 

factors could put a selective pressure in favoring 

one allele over the other and could shape the 

genetic structure of the ABO and Rh loci of 

populations in the respective areas in a long 

term. Furthermore, the low level of gene 

differentiation observed among subpopulations, 

could be due to complex population admixture 

among regions (Dewan, 2015; Canizalez-

Román et al., 2018). 

Association between blood groups and 

diseases 

The higher frequency of O blood group 

observed in this study could have an 

evolutionary advantage in conferring resistance 

to disease like malaria. In malaria prone 

countries of Africa group O are dominant with 

the distribution ranging from 40.0% to 80.0 % 

(Cserti and Dzik, 2007). As Ethiopia is a 

malaria endemic area in the sub-Saharan Africa 

(Anstee, 2010; Golassa et al. 2017), the 

dominance of O blood type in the present study, 

could be advantageous for protection against 

protozoan diseases (Harris et al., 2005; Panda et 

al., 2011). Tekeste and Petros (2010) reported a 

strong association between ABO blood group 

distribution and the prevalence of malaria in 

three malaria endemic areas in Ethiopia. The 

same authors have found among study 

participants with severe malaria the most 

frequent blood is type A, whereas among the 

healthy control groups the most common blood 

type is O. Similarly, a study done by Panda et 

al. (2011) in India found that the most common 

blood type is B among participant with severe 

malaria in while blood type O is the most 

frequent blood type among the healthy control 

groups. Both of these studies support the 

hypothesis that O blood confers protection to 

severe malaria albeit the exact mechanism of 

protection is not well understood and needs 

further investigation. A review made by Rowe 

et al. (2009) on the association between 

falciparum malaria and ABO blood group 

support the hypothesis that non-O blood groups 

emerging as significant risk factors for life-

threatening malaria, through the mechanism of 

enhanced rosette formation. Although the O 

blood is hypothesized to give protection against 

malaria, it makes people susceptible Vibrio 

cholera (Harris et al., 2005). Therefore, this 

interplay between the different diseases on ABO 

blood type (e.g., cholera vs. malaria) could 

contribute to the phenomenon of a balanced 

polymorphism in the human population genetic 

structure (Hamilton, 2009). 

In a nut shell, the current study established that 

among the various ABO and Rh blood groups, 

blood group O is the most common, followed by 

blood groups A, B, and AB with a 

predominance of Rh positivity. This work will 



East Afr. J. Biophys. Comput. Sci. (2022), Vol. 3, No. 2, 1-10 
 

9 

provide useful information for health 

institutions in the establishment of regional and 

national programs that speed up blood 

transfusions and tissue transplants needed in 

clinical practice. Additionally, this work is 

expected to generate interest in population 

geneticists and anthropologists to study genetic 

variation at ABO and Rh loci, as well as for 

physicians interested in the application of 

immunogenetics in diagnosis and clinical 

practice. 

Acknowledgements 

The authors would like to thank all the 

participants for their cooperation and Hawassa 

University for giving ethical permission to 

conduct the research and for financial support.  

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