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Bone marrow registry urged for Mideast region

AJMAN- There is an urgent need for a bone marrow registry for the Middle East region alone, urged experts at the Joint Conference on Organ Transplantation, Medical and Surgical Aspects held at the Gulf Medical College on Saturday.

Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the conference, Dr Omar A Fahmy, Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University said, "People of the Middle East have an Oriental background, and in the international bone marrow registry, less than three per cent donors can offer a match because there are no donors from this region."

"These are alarming stats because it means that people from this region have to wait a longer time period to find a perfect match, " he explained, adding that Saudi Arabia was edging close to building a registry. "There are 60-65 transplants done in a year in S. Arabia," he said.

While giving an overview of the current state of bone marrow transplantation in the Middle East, Prof Fahmy explained that the percentage of unrelated donors was substantially low. "Siblings are the best donors in most cases, but in this region atleast 60 per cent of patients lack marrow donations from their siblings for various reasons. This is a double setback as unrelated donors are hardly available in this region," he explained.

The professor pointed out that the region was faced with two major diseases, including Thalassemia and a severe form of Anemia.

"There is also a lack of basic information about several diseases including these two as there are no statistics and field surveys available," he said, adding that among the recommendations to be presented at the conference would be the need to upgrade resources, statistics, published data and expertise as well as to collaborate on scientific research.