Bone marrow donations on mainland exceed 18,000

The number of bone marrow donations made on the Chinese mainland surpassed 18,000 on Friday, including 383 donations made to patients in 31 countries and regions outside the mainland, according to the China Marrow Donor Program. From January to June, the country recorded 1,197 donations, up by 197 from the same period of 2023. It also registered a new daily high of 32 donations.

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 contains more than 3.45 million volunteers in its registry, with 41.8 percent of them born in the 1990s or 2000s, making it the fourth-largest bone marrow registry across the world.

The organization said it plans to increase the number of registered volunteers to nearly 4 million in the next three years.

In recent years, it has also stepped up cooperation with laboratories that test for bone marrow matching, umbilical cord blood banks and hospitals certified to carry out collection and transplantation of bone marrow.

The initial compatibility rate at the registry is more than 97.5 percent, said the organization.