As part of a recruitment campaign for new voluntary bone marrow donors, the Biomedicine Agency, the Reunion University Hospital and the Reunion ARS presented their challenges in Reunion Island. The opportunity to recall the fundamentals around this donation that is too often misunderstood to help recruit new voluntary donors on the island.
The diversity present in Reunion Island is a key asset in helping patients awaiting bone marrow transplants. It is indeed difficult to find a territory where the population is so mixed. Kafres, Malbars, Yabs, Zoreils and many others: all this ethnic richness and cultural mix are a source of hope and healing for many patients looking for their bone marrow donor.
Because bone marrow transplantation is based on genetic compatibility between the patient and their donor. Everyone has their own genetic profile and which is determined in particular by their family genetic history over several generations. Finding your “bone marrow twin” outside the family is therefore possible but very rare.
“There is a real ethnic richness on the island, the Reunionese must become aware of the key role they can play in helping to cure patients suffering from serious blood diseases such as leukemia. Their profiles are unique and highly sought after, they could have a considerable impact by registering on the national bone marrow donor registry”explains Dr Patricia Zunic, head of the clinical hematology and cell therapy department and transplant doctor at La Réunion University Hospital.
“And the more diversity there is among the profiles registered in the national register of bone marrow donors, the more the chances of finding a compatible donor for each patient will increase” adds Dr Catherine Faucher, Director of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Collection and Transplants (bone marrow cells) at the Biomedicine Agency.
At the end of 2023, there were nearly 4,500 Reunion donors registered on the national register (out of a total of 385,000 French donors). At the end of October 2024, 125 new donors had registered for the Meeting out of 12,830 nationally.
We note that on the island the subject is not sufficiently well understood, which leads to confusion, which partly explains the low number of new donors.
If 67% of respondents say they have already heard of the subject, only 20% of them feel well informed about this gesture.
