Advisory For Expats In the Philippines Who Have RH Negative Blood

Advisory For RH Negative Expats Living In The Philippines




In making your plans to relocate to the Philippines I doubt the subject of donor blood availability ever came up. It never crossed my mind. But it may be a factor for you to consider if you happen to be part of the 6% of the people on earth who have RH negative blood.

RH negative % of world population & Philippines population
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You may hear that 15% of the population are RH negative. That figure is generally for Western nations. The RH negative blood type represents about 1% of the population within Asia and less than 6% of the populations of most countries on the African continent. Therefore, only about 6% of the total world population are RH negative.

Only .33% of the Philippines’ population are RH negative. That figure equates to about 342,546 people. Persons having the AB- blood type can receive blood from all of them. 

The table below details who you can donate blood to or receive blood from based upon blood type:

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The figures below represent the number of people in the Philippines who can potentially donate blood to you given your RH negative status:

O-: 103,802 potential donors
A-: 207,603 potential donors
B-: 207,603 potential donors
AB-: 342,546 potential donors

The data in this article for RH negative statistics was taken from a wikipedia article on blood type distribution. There are some issues with the data that are pointed out within the article. It is likely that the proportion of RH negative distribution is lower than described, as missing data is from populations that have lower proportions of RH negative individuals than the 6% figure stated.

A hundred thousand potential donors may sound like a lot, but that is across the entire population of the Philippines. Even RH positive individuals may experience difficulties in obtaining suitable donor blood and as an RH negative person you have a fraction of their options available to you.
 
If you are RH negative and you do decide to relocate to the Philippines, then there are some steps that you might want to take just in case you ever need a blood transfusion: