The Biomedicine Agency launched in March 2021 a national campaign to recruit 20,000 bone marrow donors by the end of the year. In the Occitanie region, the agency hopes to recruit 1,340 new people, especially men aged 18 to 35, to help patients with leukemia.
In Occitania, nearly 22,000 people were already registered at the end of 2020 on the bone marrow donor register, but the Biomedicine Agency is looking for 1,340 new people in the region by the end of the year. Indeed, on the list of current registrants, only 30% are under 35 and 34% are men, while the typical profile targeted by the agency is a man under 35.
The new conditions since January 2021 to join the donor register are to be between 18 and 35 years old, to be in perfect health and to answer a medical questionnaire followed by a biological sample. Young men are the profiles favored by transplant doctors because the cells from their bone marrow are devoid of the antibodies created by the woman during a possible pregnancy.
22,000 donors in Occitania
It is important to have many potential donors on the registry because the recipient must have a similar genetic profile to the donor for the transplant to proceed without problems. It is the family members of the patient who have the closest genes, but when they cannot donate bone marrow, it is important to have a substantial donor list in order to have genetic profiles. varied and compatible available when needed.
