Abstract

Anemia is a huge public health and nutrition problem with serious consequences. Though oral supplementation of iron, vitamin B12 and folic acid are most commonly used as a therapeutic measure to correct anemia; it is suggested that the oral supplementation of iron is not the best way to correct anemia especially due to its adverse effect on some other body functions and other complications. Under this situation it is far better to take the preventive measure to combat anemia by taking iron or vitamin rich diet, especially to those who are more prone to anemia. But the type of such population is not known to us. So, the objective of the present study is to find out whether there is any relation of blood group in occurrence of anemia to recommend the appropriate preventive measure to eradicate anemia. For this the  whole  blood  of suspected anemic patients was collected  in fasting condition and the RBC count, hemoglobin concentration and blood group of all of  the anemic patients were determined. It is observed that O type of individuals are comparatively resistant to anemia in spite of large frequency distribution of O groups  in general population whereas anemia is relatively prone to the individuals having blood group B, A or AB.

Key words: Anemia, blood group, iron deficiency anemia, relation between blood group and anemia.