By Rhian Voskamp | Fundraising and Communication Coordinator
WMDA’s Search & Match Service (previously known as BMDW) is the best tool in the world for obtaining an overview of whether an unrelated stem cell source exists for a patient in need of a stem cell transplant.
The service is easy to use, and trained Search Coordinators can perform the search quickly.
With a click of the mouse, 42 millions donors can be searched to find the donor that is the best match for a patient.
However, not every patient will find a matching donor. Why? Patients and Donors are matched according to their HLA type. HLA types are inherited so siblings can sometimes be a match for each other. Each of your brothers and sisters who has the same mother and father as you has a 1 in 4 chance (25%) of being a complete, or full, match. You’re more likely to match someone with a similar ethnic background or ancestry.
WMDA's Search & Match Service includes voluntary blood stem cell donors from 57 countries, though globally there are 195 countries. This means that more than 70% of countries are not represented in the global database.
This is something that the WMDA community work on changing. We work with healthcare professionals in countries not yet represented and continue working on diversifying the global database.
Could you support WMDA in diversifying the global database?
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