Recruit 20,000 new bone marrow donors aged 18 to 25
Published on 18 March 2021
Starting on March 22, the Agence de la biomédecine is launching a major campaign to recruit 20,000 new donors, ending in September 2021 on World Bone Marrow Donor Day.
2021, a new deal for bone marrow donor recruitment
Despite the difficult health context linked to the Covid-19 epidemic and the suspension of pre-registration for 4 months in 2020, 16,331 new voluntary donors were registered last year on the French registry, 31% of whom were men and 69% women. In January and February 2021, there are already 2,131 new registrations, and 29% of them are men.
Since January 1, 2021, any new person wishing to register as a voluntary bone marrow donor must be aged between 18 and 35 inclusive: a major change motivated by medical and scientific reasons.
Given these new conditions for registering on the registry and the health measures imposed by the pandemic, the challenge for the Agence de la biomédecine in 2021 was to rethink its communications approach to convince the young public, and young men in particular, to join the ranks of voluntary donors, because it's not so hard to save a life by donating your bone marrow!
Why a recruitment strategy focused on the 18-35 age group?
After HLA compatibility - a genetic profile specific to each individual and determined in particular by his or her geographical origins - age and then gender are the most important criteria in donor selection. Bone marrow transplants taken from younger donors are richer in cells, enabling patients to receive transplants more quickly. When a choice is available, transplant doctors prefer young male donors for better results.
This is why the Agence de la biomédecine is committed to a qualitative development of the bone marrow donor registry, i.e. a younger one, in order to best meet patients' needs. This is in line with the profiles recruited in recent years: in 2019, 70% of newly registered donors were already in this age bracket.
The Agence de la biomédecine has therefore lowered the registration age from 50 to 35 for medical and scientific reasons, as well as to take into account practices already in place in France and around the world. In addition, it is essential to diversify the geographical origins of new registrants to improve the chances of finding a compatible donor for each patient. This diversity is just as evident in the 18-35 age group.