The Biomedicine Agency lacks bone marrow donors. She begins a campaign to shatter preconceived ideas about this donation, which is simpler than it seems.
Objective: 18,000 new donors. From March 13 to 19, the Biomedicine Agency is mobilized throughout France. Events are increasing in the departments in order to raise awareness about bone marrow donation. 967 patients benefited from a transplant during the year 2016. But donors are still too rare and there are too many misconceptions.
A blood sample
Contrary to what its name suggests, bone marrow does not cure bone diseases, but blood diseases. In this area, it is even essential since it treats 80% of blood pathologies. This is a first misconception that the Biomedicine Agency dismantles during this week of mobilization.
The sample is also the subject of many unjustified fears: the bone marrow is not contained in the vertebrae… but in the heart of the bones. The procedures are therefore simpler: in three quarters of cases, the donation is limited to a blood test. Other donors will have to undergo a pelvic bone harvest. A benign intervention which requires only 48 hours of hospitalization and the inconveniences of which disappear quickly.
Reduced compatibility
Finding a suitable donor is extremely difficult. If doctors turn, as a priority, to siblings and relatives, a donation is not always possible. Outside of the family, the chances of compatibility are very low. It is estimated that there is a one in a million chance of finding a suitable unrelated donor.
This is why the Biomedicine Agency is extending research to all donors in the world – 30 million in total. But it invites the French to mobilize more widely, and in all regions, in order to optimize the possibilities for the sick.
Men called to mobilize
All donations are welcome, underlines the Biomedicine Agency. But the campaign is particularly focused on men under 40. They represent 65% of samples… but only 35% of those registered in the donor register. An imbalance that must be corrected.
Because as Professor Jacques Olivier Bay, head of the hematology department of Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital (Puy-de-Dôme) indicates, “men’s bone marrow is not exposed to the antibodies that women can potentially develop. during her pregnancy. Thus, the tolerance is better. “
The message got across in 2016: men represented 80% of new registrants. This positive dynamic should be repeated in 2017. One element could perhaps motivate those who are hesitant. Once compatibility with the recipient is assured, the donor has one to three months to prepare for the donation. What allay fears. The conditions to register are simple: you just need to be between 18 and 50 years old, in perfect health, and to pass a medical interview and have a blood test.
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