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China Calls for Social Support of "China Marrow Bank"
On May 9, the Red Cross Society of China once again called on more volunteers to join the ranks of the marrow contributors and to generously donate for the construction and development of "China Marrow Bank".
China's mainland sees an increase of about 40,000 leukemia patient every year. This malignant disease takes a toll of deaths of 40,000-50,000 people, most of them being children and teenagers.
Marrow transplant is the most effective means for giving a radical cure of leukemia in clinical practice. Entrusted by the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross Society of China formally established the "China Marrow Bank" in 1992 and started the solicitation and registration of marrow contributors of non-genetic connection in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, and some other cities. However, due to the barriers and mistaken areas in people's concepts and understanding, China Marrow Bank so far has only the materials on over 20,000 contributors. Most of the leukemia patients in China are treated with marrow contributed by their own brothers or sisters.
Lu Daopei, professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that during marrow transplant conducted between different genes, the compatibility antigens of the contributor and receiver must fully match each other. This probability is only 25 percent between sisters and brothers of same parents. Among non-consanguineous people, it is one 400th to one/10,000th. To carry out marrow transplant between non-consanguineous people will provide more leukemia patients with the opportunities to be treated and survive in China, a country where most families have only one child.
Lu calls for a stronger publicity and science popularization education so as to dispel people's fear toward the concept. Marrow has a strong ability for regeneration. Like blood contribution, it has very slight influence on the health condition of the contributors.
On the occasion of commemorating the 10th anniversary of the World Red Cross Society, Wang Lizhong, executive vice-president of Red Cross Society of China, paid a visit to the leukemia patients in Beijing People's Hospital. Lu said Red Cross Society of China would launch a new development plan in the latter part of this year. A total of 40 million yuan will be needed to achieve the goal of establishing a bank for the marrow of 100,000 persons.
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