Please read this
As we near Canadian Stem Cell Awareness Week and move into the next week of National Marrow Awareness Month in the US, I would like to address how stem cell and bone marrow registration affects the Black community across the world.
This is a similar story for other communities. You Google for a few minutes and you will find information on how the depressed numbers in the Chinese, Indian, Aboriginal, and Latino communities are affecting patients.
So what does this mean for the Black community?
5 points to take away:
1. The most likely match is someone of the same or similar ethnicity.
95% of people with Sickle Cell Anemia are of African descent. Currently the only people who get transplants for severe cases of SCA are young people. Black people of all ages with diseases like leukemia, lymphoma and aplastic anemia deserve the same chance at a transplant, often the best chance for survival if it is proposed.
2. 75% of European-Canadians find an unrelated match. Only 10-30% of "anybody else" find an unrelated match.
40% of patients who need a transplant are minorities, but as registrants they only represent 13%.
3. Due to genetic variance, 1 in 500 Europeans need to be on the registry, but 1 in 10 Africans should be on the registry worldwide.
Due to the history of our migrations, there is more genetic diversity among people who identify themselves as black, African, African-American -Canadian -Caribbean. Caribbean people are among some of the hardest to type in the world, as are people of mixed ethnicity.
4. There aren't enough of us in the Canadian registry.
0.5% of the entire registry is classified as black and less than 0.2% is classified as multiethnic. (Under 1500 people - we need almost 80000 more.)
5. The shortage is worldwide.
Donors and recipients can live in different countries. In the US, 515 000 who selected African-American are registered in the US and this is a shortage. The number should be about 4 million.
A search can be international if no one is found in North America, but there are not enough people of African descent registered in the world. There are no registries in the Caribbean or Africa (except South Africa).
Can you cut and paste this note and post it to your profile? Find 5 people to discuss this with face-to-face.
You have your brother, sister, cousin, significant other, parents, children, colleagues, fellow students, good friend, hairdresser, local community businessman, pastor and others to choose from.
If you have registered, let people know!
Thanks for reading this.
Heal Emru Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heal-Emru/19717575508
info@healemru.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Because it is National Marrow Awareness Month in the US, if you register online it is FREE!!!!!
http://www.marrow.org/
This is a similar story for other communities. You Google for a few minutes and you will find information on how the depressed numbers in the Chinese, Indian, Aboriginal, and Latino communities are affecting patients.
So what does this mean for the Black community?
5 points to take away:
1. The most likely match is someone of the same or similar ethnicity.
95% of people with Sickle Cell Anemia are of African descent. Currently the only people who get transplants for severe cases of SCA are young people. Black people of all ages with diseases like leukemia, lymphoma and aplastic anemia deserve the same chance at a transplant, often the best chance for survival if it is proposed.
2. 75% of European-Canadians find an unrelated match. Only 10-30% of "anybody else" find an unrelated match.
40% of patients who need a transplant are minorities, but as registrants they only represent 13%.
3. Due to genetic variance, 1 in 500 Europeans need to be on the registry, but 1 in 10 Africans should be on the registry worldwide.
Due to the history of our migrations, there is more genetic diversity among people who identify themselves as black, African, African-American -Canadian -Caribbean. Caribbean people are among some of the hardest to type in the world, as are people of mixed ethnicity.
4. There aren't enough of us in the Canadian registry.
0.5% of the entire registry is classified as black and less than 0.2% is classified as multiethnic. (Under 1500 people - we need almost 80000 more.)
5. The shortage is worldwide.
Donors and recipients can live in different countries. In the US, 515 000 who selected African-American are registered in the US and this is a shortage. The number should be about 4 million.
A search can be international if no one is found in North America, but there are not enough people of African descent registered in the world. There are no registries in the Caribbean or Africa (except South Africa).
Can you cut and paste this note and post it to your profile? Find 5 people to discuss this with face-to-face.
You have your brother, sister, cousin, significant other, parents, children, colleagues, fellow students, good friend, hairdresser, local community businessman, pastor and others to choose from.
If you have registered, let people know!
Thanks for reading this.
Heal Emru Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heal-Emru/19717575508
info@healemru.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Because it is National Marrow Awareness Month in the US, if you register online it is FREE!!!!!
http://www.marrow.org/