Donor registration and recruitment
At the end of 2010, 14.9 million people had registered their willingness
to be a bone marrow donor with one of the 64 registries from 45
countries participating in Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide. 12.2 million of
these registered donors had been ABDR typed, allowing easy matching. A
further 453,000 cord blood units had been received by one of 44 cord
blood units from 26 countries participating. The highest total number of
bone marrow donors registered were those from the USA (6.4 million),
and the highest number per capita were those from Cyprus (10.6% of the
population).
Within the United States, racial
minority groups are the least likely to be registered and therefore the
least likely to find a potentially life-saving match. In 1990, only six
African-Americans were able to find a bone marrow match, and all six had
common European genetic signatures.
Africans are more
genetically diverse than people of European descent, which means that
more registrations are needed to find a match. Bone marrow and cord
blood banks exist in South Africa, and a new program is beginning in
Nigeria.
