China's bone-marrow bank receives 15,000 donations

BEIJING -- The China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) announced that it has facilitated over 15,000 bone marrow donations, with 372 donations made to patients spanning 30 countries and regions, China Daily reported on Thursday.

Citing data from the organization, the newspaper reported that the number of registered stem cell donors had topped 3.27 million as of April 10, with 45 percent of volunteers aged between 18 and 35.

Last year, the organization attracted 150,000 new registrations and completed 1,968 transplants, up by 70 from the previous year, according to the paper.

China saw its first hematopoietic stem cell donation from an unrelated volunteer in 1996. Since then, it took nearly two decades to achieve the first milestone of 5,000 donations and another five years to reach 10,000 donations, the paper said.