Gene frequencies of ABO and Rh (D) blood group alleles in a healthy infant population in Ibadan, Nigeria.

The ABO and Rhesus blood group systems remain the most important blood group systems clinically. In order to provide gene frequency values for the ABO and Rh (D) alleles in a healthy infant population in south west Nigeria, 4748 healthy infants were typed for ABO and Rh (D) blood groups over a five year period (1988-1992). Overall, 2575 (54.2%) were blood group O, 1023 (21.6%) were blood group A, 1017 (21.4%) were blood group B and 133 (2.8%) were blood group AB. The distribution of the ABO blood groups did not differ significantly from those expected under the Hardy Weinberg equilibrium (Goodness-of-fit X2 = 6.09, df = 3, p = 0.1075). The proportions of the infants belonging to the various ABO blood groups did not vary significantly over the period of the study (X2 = 14.53, df = 12, p = 0.268). Overall gene frequencies for the O, A and B genes were 0.7398, 0.1305 and 0.1298 respectively. For the Rh (D) gene, 4520 (95.2%) were Rh-positive while 228 (4.8%) were Rh-negative. However, the proportions of Rh (D) negative infants varied significantly over the period of the study, with a particular year (1991) having nearly twice the usual frequency of Rh-negative individuals (X2 = 31.17, df =, p < 0.001). The frequency of the Rh (D) gene was 0.7809. These figures are reported in the hope that they may find some use as reference for studies of ABO blood groups in health and disease, especially since they were obtained in an infant population in which it is expected that selection pressures should not have started to act to any significant extent.