Following the success of Ezer Mizion in building its international bone marrow databank, Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital is undertaking a program to begin building a similar databank for the Arab population in Israel and abroad.

Hadassah officials report that among the Arab patients requiring a bone marrow transplant, they did not succeed in locating a suitable match in 40% of the cases, even when attempting to find a suitable donor among family members. They did check existing databanks in Israel and abroad, realizing the chances of finding a suitable donor was slim since they were not from the same genetic families. At present, the chances of finding a suitable donor for a member of the Arab community is currently 12%, including inside Israel and abroad.

Heading the project in Dr. Emil Bishara who hopes to begin distributing literate and posting adverts in the Arab communities, encouraging people to come in and register and give a blood sample to join the effort.

Bishara explained they waited for the end of Ramadan and now, they hope men and women 18-55 will cooperate with the effort. He adds that today, the hospital’s bone marrow database contains 63,000 names, but only 200 from the Arab community. Twenty patients from the Arab community are currently waiting to find a suitable donor.

For comparison explains the doctor, if someone of European decent was seeking a suitable bone marrow donor, he has an 80% chance of finding a suitable match.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)