Mainland records over 18,000 bone marrow donations

The number of bone marrow donations made in the Chinese mainland reached 18,474 as of Friday, including 385 donations made to patients in 31 countries and regions outside the mainland, according to the China Marrow Donor Program.

This year so far, the country recorded 1,766 donations, including 11 made outside the mainland, the organization said during an event held on this year's World Marrow Donor Day on Saturday in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

Established more than two decades ago, the China Marrow Donor Program is a nonprofit organization that runs the national data bank on donors.

It now has more than 3.45 million volunteers in its registry and has provided HLA typing tests for over 120,000 blood disease patients. Human leukocyte antigen typing is used to match patients and donors for transplantation.