• Question: Why do we have blood groups such as A positive or B negative. What do these do?

    Asked by Parishi to Clare, Arthur, Daniel, David, Tora on 10 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Sam Davies.
    • Photo: Clare Harding

      Clare Harding answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      This is a great question, no ones knows exactly why we have different blood types. We know that the great apes also have different blood types so they arose in evolution quite a long time ago but why have they been kept?

      It seams that having different blood types may help protect you from some diseases, so people with type A blood are slightly more likley to get severe maleria which might explain why in although A is the most common blood type in Europe (about 35%) while in Africa its only in 10-20% of people (there is a great selection of graphs here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_distribution_by_country)

      So this might have something to do with it but to be honest, people are still trying to find out!

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