December 04, 2018 - 4:49 AM
MIAMI - A worldwide search is on to find blood donors with a rare genetic variation to help save a 2-year-old South Florida girl battling cancer.
Zainab Mughal has neuroblastoma and needs life-saving transfusions. But finding compatible donors is immensely challenging, because she's missing a common antigen most people carry in their blood, called "Indian B."
Florida-based OneBlood says the donors must have "A'' or "O'' type blood and be Pakistani, Indian or Iranian; and that even within these ethnic groups, fewer than 4 per cent of people have the genetic variation.
Three donors have been found thus far, including a person in England, but Zainab will need more blood than they can provide.
OneBlood is offering to co-ordinate compatibility testing anywhere in the world.
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For more information, visit www.oneblood.org/zainab .
News from © The Associated Press, 2018