Zhu Jinping, a leukemia sufferer in Pizhou City in east China's Jiangsu Province, opened the nation's first bone marrow website recently.
By clicking on www.pz.js.cn/zjp/, visitors can get abundant information and knowledge about leukemia and marrow donation. Patients may exchange views on the website.
Zhu recovered from leukemia through marrow donation from his brother. It was his long-cherished wish to set up a website to encourage more Chinese to join in marrow donation.
The incident rate of leukemia in China is about four per 100, 000. But due to a shortage of donators and the extremely low matching rate, most patients have to seek matching marrow from abroad.
China has established a marrow gene bank in Shenzhen and a marrow donation bank in Shanghai, which has some 12,000 local volunteers donating their marrow to patients suffering from leukemia or other diseases, according to the local Red Cross Society.
The Beijing Marrow Bank, operated by the Red Cross Society of China, expected to gather a total of 100,000 blood samples since it was set up in March 1992. However, after six years of constant struggle, the bank has only managed to collect the modest amount of 5,000 samples.
It is a pressing task now to advocate marrow donation knowledge to remove people's fears about the donation operation and their health.
(Xinhua 02/14/2001)
