Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW), an organization linking stem cell donor registries in different countries, and the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) report having reached 25 million registered donors. Also in the register morethan 630 000 cord blood units (CBU).

Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed with a serious disease such as leukemia, another form of cancer or a hereditary condition. For some of these patients, a lack of treatment options means that their only hope for survival is a stem cell transplant from a healthy donor.

Launched in 1989 by eight participating countries, BMDW now enjoys the support of 53 nations working together in sharing a list of potential stem cell donors around the world. This centralized registry enables health professionals everywhere to find a compatible donor or unit of cord blood rapidly and effectively. To date, more than 250,000 patients have received a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.
Given that the chances of finding an unrelated compatible donor depend on the patient’s genetic profile and that nearly 50% of transplants are performed between donors and recipients in different countries.

To find the best matched donor for a patient, the first step is to look into BMDW, the global database, where all potential donors and cord blood units are listed. The database is available for physicians who can quickly look and determine within a few minutes if there is chance for a match for their patients.

Worldwide, over 50,000 patients per year are looking for a matched donor outside their family. Nearly 50% of the patients that find a donor find his or her perfectly matched donor in another country. WMDA works towards a global standardization by establishing an accreditation programme for registries. The accreditation programme ensures that organisations protect the welfare of the donors and high-quality stem cells for patients worldwide.

Source: http://www.newswire.ca

International Registry of Donors of Hematopoietic Stem Cells (bone marrow) of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine was founded due to the order of the Ministry of Health of Sep28th 2009. And in 2004, in Ukraine the first cyobank of umbilical cord blood at the Institute of Cell Therapy was founded.