The death of a 6-year-old girl in his neighborhood from leukemia
inspired Xiao Peng, a student at Guizhou Herbal Medical
Institution, to call the Jinyang Information Daily hotline to find
out how he could become one of the some 60,000 marrow donors listed
in China's marrow bank who have donated blood to try to help others
suffering from the deadly disease.
An
estimated 4 million people are suffering from leukemia in China,
with some 4,000 added victims every year. For most, the only hope
is a marrow transplant.
Xiao Peng may also have been inspired by a series of appeals for
marrow donors early this year by the Red Cross Association of Guizhou
Province where hospitals are accepting an average of some 40-50
new leukemia patients a year, and donors are desperately
needed.
And yet in the end, Xiao Peng did not donate.
This potential donor learned through his inquiries that Guizhou
does not have a marrow bank and that if he and the two other
students he had convinced to volunteer marrow wanted to donate they
would have to go to branches in nearby provinces like Guangxi,
Yunnan, and Sichuan.
Why doesn't Guizhou have a marrow bank? It's not because medical
institutions are not performing the procedure: Both the hospital
affiliated with Guiyang Medical Institution and Zunyi Medical
Institution have successful records of marrow transplants.
The problem is not enough money and not enough equipment, according
to the secretary of the Red Cross Association of Guizhou Province
who said a marrow bank requires large amounts of capital to
maintain, aside from the expenditures required for importing
advanced lab equipment and professional techniques.
The Red Cross Association of Guizhou Province until last year was a
branch organization under the Health Bureau of Guizhou Province,
dependent mostly on local charity. However, last December, the
Provincial Structuring and Staffing Commission made the Red Cross
an independent association. This is a good news that enhances the
possibility of constructing a Guizhou provincial marrow bank in the
future, according to a Guizhou Red Cross official who considers a
marrow bank essential.
At
the hospital affiliated with the Guiyang Medical Institution, a
leukemia patient recently went through a marrow transplant using
his brother's stem cells. The matching rate among siblings is
one-fourth, which is not a high rate after all. However, the
matching rate for non-siblings is between one four hundredth and
one ten thousandth, and for those rare blood types, the rate is one
out of several ten thousand or several hundred thousand.
But with the one-child policy under China's Family Planning, marrow
transplants will depend increasingly on finding a matching partner
from volunteers who are not siblings. If a local hospital cannot
find a matching type that is compatible with a patient, then the
hospital will have to ask for help from the China Marrow Bank or
the Taiwan Marrow Bank. The more volunteers, the more opportunities
for leukemia patients, and the more lives that will be saved.
The China Marrow Bank is always calling for more donors to help
leukemia patients. Although 60,000 are listed in the China's marrow
bank, this compares to 4 million donors in marrow banks in the
United States and 20,000 donors in Taiwan which has a population of
only 20 million.
Another problem in getting volunteers is the worry some people have
about the health effects in the donation process. But today's
marrow transplant is actually the transplant of blood stem cells.
Instead of drawing marrow, the doctor takes blood from a vein in
the donor's arm, and then distills the stem cells through a
blood-cell separator. The process involves only slight discomfort
for the donors. After volunteers register for donation, five
milliliters of blood is drawn for analysis. The record is kept for
future use in the case of a compatibility, at which time the marrow
bank informs the donor and further preparations are made.
(貴州信息港 [Guizhou
Information Network], December 11, 2001, translated for
china.org.cn by Feng Shu)