Worldwide Hunt For Rare Blood Ongoing To Help Miami Girl Fight Cancer
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A Florida family is asking for the public's help.
Their daughter is fighting cancer and she needs a rare form of blood to help her survive.
She is really cute and has a winning smile with a personality to match, but she has a big challenge.
She's fighting a rare and aggressive cancer and needs blood transfusion.
Normally that's not a big deal but in Zainab's case, it is a big complication.
Zainab is missing a common antigen that most of us carry in our red blood cells.
The antigen is called "Indian B" and for someone to match Zainab, they too must have the "Indian B" antigen, otherwise the little girl's body will reject the blood.
The only people who ae likely to be a match for Zainab are people of Pakistani, Indian or Iranian descent, and of those populations less than four percent of the people are missing the Indian B antigen.
OneBlood, a local not-for-profit blood center is leading the worldwide search for Zainab.
OneBlood says it has found three matches so far, one near London and two in the U.S., but she will need blood transfusions for the foreseeable future, which means more donors must be found.
The group says they are looking for at least 7 to 10 compatible donors.
To see if you are compatible, go to the OneBlood page created for Zainab. All donations must be coordinated in advance to ensure compatibility.
OneBlood, which runs blood donor centers across the Southeast, is sharing Zainab's story in the hopes more people who meet the specific donor criteria will come forward to donate for the little girl.
OneBlood is conducting all compatibility testing of potential donors. So far, more than 1,000 local donations, as well as donations from other parts of the country have been tested and no additional matches have been identified.
