Media is welcome to contact the Community Relations
Department of the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center for more information.

We offer:

•Interviews with experts in their respective medical fields

•Interviews with Life Links - community members touched by the services of STBTC

•Informative tours of the facility

Please contact Carmen Davila, Director of Community Relations:

Phone: 210-731-5519
e-mail: cdavila@bloodntissue.org

90% of patients with sickle cell disease are African-American

Black History Month is an opportunity to raise awareness

SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 8, 2010) –Sickle Cell Anemia (also called sickle cell disease or SCD) is one of the most prevalent genetic diseases affecting more than 70,000 people in the U.S. Ninety percent of those who have it are African- American. 

Dr. Reginald Moore, director of the Howard A. Britton Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital treats more than 100 children with sickle cell disease.

To prevent stroke and treat pain crises in his patients, Dr. Moore often prescribes blood transfusions. “On average a sickle patient will need one transfusion a month”, says Dr. Moore. For patients who do not respond to medical treatment, the only known cure is a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.

Since September, the South Texas Blood & Tissue center’s We Are the Answer program is helping recruit African-American donors to match sickle cell patient’s blood needs.  However, it is difficult and often impossible to find a marrow match for patients of African-American or minority descent.  Less than 50% of African American patients find a match within the national marrow registry compared to 80%-85% of Caucasian patients.

It is imperative to increase awareness of sickle cell disease and sickle cell patients needs within the African American community.  “Because sickle cell patients rely on blood donors of the same descent, from whom they are less likely to develop antibodies which weaken their immune system African Americans are encouraged to donate blood” says Aleida F. Nichols, Community Relations Specialist for the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center. African-Americans are encouraged to join the Be the Match National Marrow Registry. 

For more information about marrow registration, blood donation and cord blood donation, please contact the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center at (210) 731-5555.  

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