Thus far, foreign countries had marrow donor registries, but now, India has also registered its name in the same list.

India’s Mumbai first became the first to join the league with the Marrow Donor Registry India (MDRI).

MDRI will be a database of bone marrow donors and the donor marrow can be used treating patients fighting life-threatening blood disorders in India or abroad.

Bone marrow transplants are still a rarity in India, mainly because no there’re no registries.
 
According to data, around 40,000 Indians suffering from blood disorders including leukaemia, aplastic anaemia, sickle-cell anaemia and such, lost their lives for want of donors, and just 30% of those have any chance of finding a match within their families, whereas the remaining have to depend upon unrelated donors.

At a seminar on Saturday, Dr. Sunil Parekh, haematologist at Bombay Hospital, stated, “The intention of setting up a bone marrow registry with a national reach was to eliminate these problems that patients encounter.”

The bone marrow registry is housed in Parel's Tata Memorial Hospital, and has already recorded 1,349 donors. The All India Institute of Medical Science, Delhi started the first marrow donor registry in India.

The marrow donor registry at Tata has an advisory panel with specialists and will have access to international databases also.

"It is connected to registries in Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, Denmark, the US and UK," said Dr. Ashok Kirpalani of the Indian Society of Organ Transplant, the NGO that worked closely with Tata Hospital to set up the registry.

Representatives from the registry will go to colleges and business houses in order to find donors.

According to Kirpalani, in the absence of donor registries in India, patients face two problems, "First it is hard to find a donor-match for a patient in India in western registries due to our genetic differences. Second Indians who are able to find a match, have to go abroad for the transplant costing Rs1 crore to Rs1.5 crore."

Dr. Mammen Chandy of the CMC Hospital, Vellore, said there was a great requirement for an Indian registry.

During the last nine months, the CMC has carried out only nine transplants, and the bone marrow had to be brought in from Germany and the US.