 | ||||
|
|
|
APAMSA Joins Awareness and Recruitment InitiativeCampaign to Address Urgent Need for Asian & Pacific Islander Stem Cell DonorsMINNEAPOLIS -- April 16, 2002 A national education and recruitment initiative to sign-up more Asian and Pacific Islanders to become life-saving volunteer marrow and blood stem cell donors, was kicked off during April at U.S. universities with an Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) chapter. This marks the first year that APAMSA has collaborated with the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) to conduct a single, concerted recruitment campaign to educate students and communities. Numerous "APAMSA Week" donor drives are being held during April at college campuses across the country. The initiative, Asian Pacific American Donors Can Save Lives, was created to encourage more Asian and Pacific Islanders to join the NMDP Registry of volunteer marrow and blood stem cell donors to help save lives. NMDP's mission is to extend and improve lives through innovative stem cell therapies. "It is essential to bring national awareness to this very important issue. By holding all of the recruitment drives simultaneously, we hope to have a bigger collective impact than if each local chapter did its own drive at scattered times throughout the year," APAMSA Executive Vice President Sunny Cheung said. Each year, thousands of African Americans, American Indian/Alaska Natives, Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics are diagnosed with leukemia, aplastic anemia or other life-threatening diseases. For many, their only chance for survival is a marrow or blood stem cell transplant. Stem cell transplantation from bone marrow, blood stem cells or umbilical cord blood is a primary treatment option for more than 70 life-threatening diseases. Donors of diverse race and ethnicity are needed to join the NMDP Registry. "The NMDP is very grateful to partner with APAMSA on this important initiative. Through this campaign, we can address the disparity in the number of Asian Pacific Islander donors and offer renewed hope to the thousands currently searching," NMDP Senior National Ethnic Marketing Associate Christina Nguyen said. The NeedStem cell transplants require matching certain tissue traits of the donor and patient. Since these traits are inherited, a patient's most likely match is another family member. Unfortunately, 70 percent cannot find a match within their own families. Some characteristics of tissue type are unique to people of specific ancestry. For Caucasians, there is an 88 percent likelihood of finding at least one suitably matched donor. For Asian and Pacific Islanders, that number drops to a 58 percent likelihood of finding a suitable donor. All it takes is a simple blood test to join the Registry, and anyone between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good health can become a volunteer donor. Since 1995, the number of transplants performed for minority patients has more than tripled. Today, unrelated donors have given more than 1,700 minority patients a second chance through transplants facilitated by the NMDP. Although significant progress has been made, and more than 1 million minorities have joined the NMDP Registry since 1988, minority volunteer donors are still urgently needed. Asian/Pacific Islander Statistics
About the NMDPThe National Marrow Donor Program, created in 1986, is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that facilitates unrelated donor stem cell transplants for patients with life-threatening blood diseases who do not have matching donors in their families. Currently, the NMDP facilitates more than 140 transplants each month. The NMDP provides a single point of access for all sources of blood stem cells used in transplantation: marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood. The Registry, which includes more than 4.5 million potential volunteer marrow and blood stem cell donors, is able to search its own database and provide physicians with information on multiple stem cell sources for life-saving transplants. For more information about becoming a marrow or blood stem cell donor, call the NMDP at (800) MARROW-2. More information about APAMSA is available on their Web site. Media Contact:
Barbara Mednick, National Marrow Donor Program, (612) 627-8182.
|
|
 E-mail a Friend Print this Page |
