Harlem Hospital Encourages Awareness of Cord Blood Banking

Submitted by Adam Zuccato on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 09:03

Minorities suffering from blood diseases like leukemia and lymphoma have a hard time finding donors, due to the lack of matches in donor registries around the world. The Harlem Hospital has set out to change this by encouraging local residents to consider banking or donating their children's cord blood.

In conjunction with the Harlem Hospital, Shana and Brett Melius have set up a program called Preserve Our Legacy, which aims to educate expecting parents in cord blood banking. The program seeks to inform minorities about the lack of donors available to the community, in order to encourage more parents to consider donating their children's cord blood.

According to DNAInfo.com, African Americans foster a distrust of American medical establishments, dating back to 1932 when "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" took place. Medicine has come a long way since then, and the counselling component of Preserve Our Legacy seeks to ensure that parents are made aware of this and put at ease.

Since the program was established in December 2010, 20 samples have been collected and the organizers hope that the number will continue to increase. They also hope to establish the Preserve Our Legacy Program in every public hospital across the United States.