12/17/2023 0 Comments Who cannot donate bone marrowEven though the beginning of the crisis was somewhat arbitrarily defined for this analysis, it reflects the significant drop in collections from CW 12 (March 16–22) to CW 13 (March 23–29). Corresponding values for DKMS Germany donors were 113.2/week (CW 2–12) and 97.5/week (CW 13–25), indicating a 13.8% decrease. Stem cell collectionsĭuring the COVID-19 pandemic, stem cell collections (peripheral blood stem cells and bone marrow) of DKMS donors decreased by 15.9% worldwide from 156.2/week (calendar weeks (CW) 2–12) to 131.3/week (CW 13–25 Fig. ![]() There are only minor differences to the other DKMS entities as the various country organizations have closely coordinated their efforts to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. With regard to the description of challenges and activities, we focus on DKMS Germany, by far the largest DKMS country organization (>6.6 million registered donors, >72,000 donations facilitated), unless otherwise explicitly stated. In this report we present global and country-specific DKMS figures. In 2018, the DKMS share of all unrelated stem cell donations worldwide was 39.5%. DKMS is a large donor registry with more than 10 million donors from six countries (Germany, Poland, United States, United Kingdom, Chile, India) and has so far facilitated over 85,000 stem cell collections. In this article, we examine the effects of the pandemic on unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donation and transplantation from the stem cell donor registry perspective using the example of DKMS. In addition, many people in need of treatment avoid visiting health care facilities due to fear of infection. The ongoing 2019/20 COVID-19 pandemic also affects the treatment of non-COVID-19 patients as it places significant stress on national health systems and societies as a whole. Most DKMS employees worked from home to ensure business continuity during the crisis. DKMS discontinued public offline donor recruitment, leading to a 40% decline in new donors during the crisis. However, many products from unrelated donors will never be transfused. Cryopreservation of stem cell products became the new temporary standard during the pandemic to minimize risks related to transport logistics and donor availability. New transport modes were developed so that stem cell products could be safely delivered despite COVID-19-related travel restrictions. ![]() HAC instead of confirmatory typing was helpful especially in countries with strict lockdowns. ![]() We modified donor management processes to ensure donor and product safety. The total number of stem cell products provided declined by around 15% during the crisis with a particularly strong decrease in bone marrow products. Especially, we cover the development of PBSC and bone marrow collection figures, donor management including Health and Availability Check (HAC), transport and cryopreservation of stem cell products, donor recruitment and business continuity measures. Here, we describe the effects of the pandemic on unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donation and transplantation from the perspective of DKMS, a large international donor registry. The COVID-19 pandemic has serious implications also for patients with other diseases.
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