The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive on Tuesday, Feb. 14 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus.
In addition to the blood drive, the Red Cross will hold registration for potential bone marrow donors. In particular, Charlene Moor Hayes, vice president of human resources encourages "faculty, staff and students of color to register c9 to address the shortage of bone marrow donors from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds."
Bone marrow transplants are potentially life-saving treatments for patients with leukemia, anemia, lymphoma or other blood-related diseases.
Most patients seek donations from genetically matched family members, but according to the Inland Northwest Blood Center, about 70 percent of patients do not find such a match. In response to this dilemma, the National Marrow Donor Program was established in 1987.
The National Marrow Donor Program seeks to match patients with volunteer donors from within the patient's racial or ethnic group so that there is a match between patient and donor tissue types. However, according to the National Bone Marrow Donor program, there is a dearth of donors who are identified as Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or Latino.
Currently, the percentages of ethnic groups on the registry are: 71.5 percent Caucasian, 1.6 percent Native American, 7.1 percent Hispanic, 5.7 percent Asian/Pacific Islander and 7.8 percent African American.
To join the National Marrow Donor Program's registry, potential donors must complete a health questionnaire, sign a consent form to have their tissue types listed in the registry until the donor turns 61, and provide a blood sample for testing tissue type.
There is no appointment required to register to be a bone marrow donor at the American Red Cross blood drive on Tuesday, but appointments to donate blood are highly encouraged.
Appointments can be made online at http://www.jhu.edu/outreach/blooddrive, by e-mailing or calling John Black at 410) 516-0138. Eligibility for new and returning donors can be checked at http://www.my-redcross.org.
