A dying leukaemia patient's desperate search for matching bone marrow has highlighted the plight of the country's bone marrow banks' urgent need for money to cover the costs of testing blood samples.

For Wei Nan, a soldier in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the hope of survival becomes increasingly slim with each passing day.

The 20-year-old was diagnosed with acute leukaemia on July 11 and needs an urgent marrow transplant.

Her mother, Wang Yan, has appealed to big bone marrow banks in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province and even Japan, for help.

However the results were disappointing as none of the marrow samples supplied by the banks matched her son's.

A local newspaper in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, called for local residents to donate stem cells for him.

Many volunteers called to show their willingness to help.

However, it was only when people's attention was turned to the provincial bone marrow bank did they discover the difficult situation it is now facing.

"We can take more blood samples from donors, but we don't have enough money to test them," Luan Shuqin, director of the bone marrow bank, said.

According to her, each blood sample should go through a Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) test before its information can be stored in Zhonghua Marrow Bank.

"But the HLA tests cost 530 yuan (US$65) each," she said.

According to Luan, The bank has collected 11,000 blood samples from volunteers but only 7,000 samples' information was recorded due to lack of funds.

Forty-six samples have been preliminarily found to match that of current leukaemia patients, and four people have already been saved, according to her.

"The lack of funds may result in the loss of information about donors," she said.

The plight the bank is facing is not unique.

Zhonghua Marrow Bank, also known as Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donor Databank, has 30 branches throughout the country.

"Lack of cash for testing is the problem all its branches are facing," Luan said.

Each year, the government puts a certain quota on donors and gives a corresponding amount of money for the branches to register donors.

"However, the money is only enough to cover the quota," she said,

The quota for Heilongjiang Bone Marrow Bank is 3,000 donors this year, and Luan said that they have already fulfilled that quota.

"If we want to expand the bank, we need to find the money to cover the testing costs ourselves," she said.

However, the province's high incidence of leukaemia calls for a much larger bone marrow bank.

"At present, Heilongjiang Province already has the highest incidence of leukaemia, with about 1,000 children suffering from this fearful disease," said Ma Jun, director of Heilongjiang Blood Research Centre.

The incidence of leukaemia is seven in every 100,000 people in Heilongjiang, while the national average is about five in every 100,000.

According to Ma, the province, with a population of 38 million, needs a marrow bank that contains the information about at least 100,000 potential donors.

The matching success rate of bone marrow is just one in 10,000 for relatives and one in 100,000 among non-relatives.

"We do need more volunteers, but we also need the funds to do sample analysis and expand the capacity of the marrow station," Luan said.

In contrast, exclusive funds are allocated to cover the analysis costs and 30 per cent of the volunteers in Shanghai are willing to pay for the analysis fee out of their own pockets, she said.

Source: China Daily