By Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel
NewsAsia
Posted: 09 October
2008 2225 hrs
SINGAPORE: There is a global shortage of bone marrow donors,
especially among minority groups, and the situation in Singapore is
no different.
Of 43,000 donors registered with the Bone Marrow Donor Programme
(BMDP) since it started in 1993, Indian and Malay donors only make
up a mere 8 per cent.
Thus, BMDP is embarking on a campaign to educate and recruit some
5,000 donors, especially among the minority communities.
Each day in Singapore, at least six people are diagnosed
with leukaemia, lymphoma and other blood related diseases,
and 34-year-old Sebha Elizabeth Punnem is one of them.
Diagnosed with leukaemia in April 2008, she is now recovering after
a transplant from a German donor in August through a successful
search done by BMDP.
However, not all patients are as lucky. The possibility of
finding a suitable donor is 1 in 4 among siblings, and 1 in 20,000
for outsiders.
In Singapore, experts say it is not difficult to find donors for
Chinese patients, as they can also come from Taiwan or China. But
finding a match for Malay and Indian patients is harder.
In 2007, only one of 11 Malay patients received a match and
transplant. However, there was not a single match for the 11 Indian
patients in the same year.
Senior consultant at the department of paediatrics at National
University Hospital, Associate Professor Quah Thuan Chong, said:
"Of all the three races in Singapore, it is not difficult to find
donors for the Chinese patients because if we cannot find them in
Singapore, we can find them in Taiwan, or China.
"But so far, India does not have a good registry, so sometimes we
might get donors from the United States. For the Malays, it is even
more difficult, as there are very few Malays in the western
countries."
Professor Quah added that though the blood type of Malay patients
is quite close to the Indonesians, Malaysians and Filipinos,
unfortunately, all three countries do not have extensive bone
marrow registers.
Hence, there is a need to expand the register of donors in
Singapore. In the next three months, there will be a recruitment
campaign, which also serves to dispel any misconceptions the public
may have.
President of the BMDP, Jane Prior, said: "The important thing is
that, being a bone marrow donor or being on our register, it is a
finger prick, it is not giving us a sample of your bone marrow, we
don't want that at this stage.
"We just want a drop of
blood, we like (to obtain) contact details and then you go about
your business, back to work, whatever it may be, and if you come up
as a match, only at that time will you be asked to do a bone marrow
donation."
The campaign will include road shows at Singapore's main shopping
centres such as Millenia Walk and Suntec City.
- CNA/yt