On
the first day of the faculty development week, the National Marrow
Donor Program opened to a crowd of staff members. Anita Gonzales,
the organization’s representative, lead the appeal for faculty
members to sign up as registered marrow donors.
Gonzales said that her biggest obstacles are the negative connotations
associated with the procedure. Furthermore, in the organization’s
attempt to register Hispanic donors, many don’t see how those
perceptions affect them.
According to Gonzales, the Hispanic population is highly lacking in
the national database. Of the entire registry, the Hispanic/Latino
populations only make up nine percent. Tissue types are based on genetics.
The unfortunate sum of a patient’s donor match up, based on
genealogy, means that the other 91 percent of the database are incompatible.
The closest chance at finding a donor is family members.
Family members only make up an average of 30 percent of compatibility.
That means that many are left to find donors on the national database,
where Hispanic/Latinos are in such small numbers.
According to Gonzales, some of the biggest stigmas that keep people
away from registering are understandably intimidating. The number
one objection that Hispanic/Latino people have against the procedure
is the fear of going to the doctor and the recovery process.
“The procedure is done with local anesthesia and the pain afterwards
is commonly compared to the soreness of a hard week of work,”
said Gonzales. Gonzales said that the second reason people hesitate
is their inability to miss work or not being able to take care of
family. Recovery time on average lasts less than a business week;
some patients have the procedure on Saturday and go back to work that
Monday.
Whatever the reasons, 71 faculty members signed up for the registry.
A simple cotton swab sample, taken from inside the mouth is sent to
registry. People registered are left on the database until the age
of 60. Hopefully one of the 40,000 people, about 60 in El Paso, needing
marrow dependent treatments, will find a match.
sFor more information on registering, call the National Marrow Donor
Program at (915) 532-1262.
