[Paul Anderson]

Paul Anderson  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hi Chris and team,

I have just heard on the local radio (National Programme in NZ) about a Mr Chen who needs a bone marrow transplant, and being Asian in NZ it limits the chances of finding a compatible donor because of the size of the Asian population in NZ.

Apparently Indians and other ethnic minorities would have similar problems.
 
Is the shelf life of stored bone marrow about 18 months? How well can it be transported from one side of the world to the other?  Is there a world network for moving spare parts,etc, to where it is required, or is it just an uncoordinated system of someone who knows someone else at another hospital on the other side of the world?
 
Regards
Paul
NZ

What do you think?

[RD]

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[chris]

I am pretty sure that, given how distributed world populations now are, there are initiatives to pool resources internationally to assist in donor identification. However, to find out for sure, I'll ask some haematology colleagues what the current situation is.

Chris