People suffering from life threatening diseases like leukemia, lymphoma etc.. can be cured with a bone marrow/PBSC transplant.
For a successful transplant, the patients' genetic typing needs to closely match with that of the donor. Every patient has a 25% chance of finding a match within the family. However, 70% of the patients do not find a suitable donor within the family. In such cases, there is a need to find an unrelated donor or a cord, blood unit.
Donor registries work towards creating a diverse database where the search of a life-saving donor meets a match.
There are over 50 donor registries & more than 13 million registered donors across the globe, with a very few Indians being a part of it. This reduces the chances of finding a possible match for a patient of Indian origin.
India is in real need of a functional registry with donors belonging to diverse ethnic backgrounds. A patient is more likely to find a possible match within his/her race/ethnity, (i.e.) with people sharing the same cultural linguistic, biological traits etc.
Leukemia does not discriminate;
it can affect any age, any race, any gender, any time ! |