China's only state-level marrow bank was initiated by the Red Cross Society of China to improve the country's storage of bone marrow, where most blood cells are produced.

The incidence rate of leukemia in China is about four per 100, 000. But due to a shortage of donors and the low rate of successful blood matches for transfusions, most people have to look for marrow matches from abroad.

During the next five years, the China Bone Marrow Bank will establish marrow transplant centers in one-third of the country's provinces and municipalities.

The centers will collect samples of 100,000 marrow donors, to help form a standard data retrieval system for bone marrow donated by volunteers not in the same family.

Currently, about four million people in China are waiting for bone marrow transplants, which help leukemia patients rebuild their weakened blood system. The number of leukemia sufferers increases by 40,000 per year.

In China, however, there are about 30,000 registered blood donors, far less than 4.5 million in the United States and 3.7 million in Europe.

To get support for marrow donations, a large benefit concert will soon be held in Cixi, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province. The entire ticket proceeds will go to the China Marrow Bank.

(People’s Daily October 18, 2001)