Non-governmental World Marrow Donor Registries and Western Balkan Marrow Donor Registries (2021 Year)

Abstract

Background:The Western Balkan countries include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, and Serbia. The Western Balkan region is the last region to be fully integrated into European Union and many of the indicators classify these countries near the bottom of European countries. From the six countries of the Western Balkan region, only two marrow donor registries are included in the World Marrow Donor Registry (North Macedonia and Serbia), and one is in preparation (North Macedonia).Aim: We aimed to investigate the current non-governmental world marrow donor registries and marrow donor registries in the Western Balkan countries as of 2021.Methods: We visited all of the websites at World Marrow Donor Association looking for any information about the organizational structure as of June 2021. The Western Balkan marrow donor registries were identified in the register of the World Marrow Donor Association as of July 2021.Results: We identified 196 marrow donor registries in total, from which 140 (71%) were governmental and 56 (29%) were non-governmental.