To the Editor:
I would like thank the Dartmouth community very much for the strong support of the Dartmouth Bone Marrow Donor Registration Drive. As some of you may know my mom needs a bone marrow transplant, and I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help out. Additionally, I would especially like to thank all of the volunteers who made this possible.
A total of 330 people registered, including 146 with (ethnic) minority background. This turnout is especially important, as minorities are severely underrepresented in the national database. I would also like to thank the 100 people who were unable to get tested and who should receive a testing kit in the mail. Unfortunately, we ran out of funding to test Caucasians early in the day. (Minority testing, because there is such a severe underrepresentation in the database, is funded by the federal government.)
The need for a larger database is great, with more than 3,000 people searching the National Marrow Donor Program's database everyday. A recent study of approximately 400,000 donor types found slightly over 300,000 different HLA-A, -B, -DR phenotypes. ( Transplantation 1997 Oct 15;64(7):1017-27) Anyone seeking additional information should contact me.
Just 10 minutes of your time could save someone's life.
