Arabs, Kurds registered as bone marrow donors in Czech Republic

Some 80 bone marrow donors of Arab and Kurdish origin have been registered by the Czech National Bone Marrow Donors’ Register (CNRDD), Vladimir Koza, head of the Plzen Teaching Hospsital hematological and oncological department and chairman of the Foundation for bone marrow transplantation administrative board, told CTK today.

The register office recruited the foreigners at two public meetings in Plzen and Prague. In all, the office, that was established 15 years ago, has registered about 31,000 bone marrow donors, he said.

The register intends to address other minorities in its search for new donors, Koza said.
The CNRDD is one of the world’s most successful registers although the Czech Republic is a small country.

"We are the third most productive register in the world after Japan and Germany. We contribute to one percent of bone marrow transplantations in the world which means that one in one hundred non-relative transplantations is implemented through our register, which is wonderful," Koza said.

He said the register intended to look for donors among Romanies, Vietnamese and Jews in the future.

"We are preparing cooperation with Slovaks. There is no register in Slovakia and it is therefore very difficult to start any activities," Koza said.

The CNRDD was established in Plzen in 1992 and there are about 31,000 people in its database at present who are willing to donate free of charge their bone marrow to save the lives of patients.

Annually, about 2,000 new donors are registered. Each year, the register deals with up to 250 requests for bone marrow donors from the Czech Republic and up to 600 from other countries.

The office has helped implement more than 400 non-relative transplantations.