ENROLLED
2017 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 81
BY REPRESENTATIVE HOFFMANN AND SENATOR W ALSWORTH
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the Louisiana Department of Health to post information concerning
bone marrow donations on the department's website for dissemination by healthcare
practitioners to patients.
WHEREAS, since 1987, when the United States Congress authorized the
establishment of a national registry of volunteer bone marrow donors, the National Marrow
Donor Program, now publicly known as Be The Match, has facilitated more than seventy-
four thousand marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants; and
WHEREAS, Be The Match states that the number of transplants facilitated through
the national Be The Match Registry is only a fraction of the people who can benefit; and
WHEREAS, one of the leading hurdles cited in a report by the Government
Accountability Office is locating a suitably matched, unrelated donor, a process that is often
difficult, time-consuming, and costly; and
WHEREAS, seventy percent of patients do not have a donor in their family and rely
upon the national registry to find a match; and
WHEREAS, there is a need to enhance the understanding of the importance of bone
marrow donation, and to encourage residents of Louisiana to participate in bone marrow
donation drives; and
WHEREAS, the most prevalent problem with respect to bone marrow donation is the
need for racially and ethnically diverse donors because of complex tissue types; and
WHEREAS, of the more than thirteen million five hundred thousand potential donors
on the national Be The Match Registry, forty percent are donors from racially and ethnically
diverse backgrounds; and
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WHEREAS, there is a need to engage the public to increase diversity in the registry,
with the goal of finding a matching donor for all patients to receive the transplant they need,
when they need it; and
WHEREAS, the bone marrow registration process is simple as it only takes a few
minutes and requires a cheek swab; and
WHEREAS, a bone marrow transplant may be the best treatment option or the only
potential for a cure for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia, and many
other diseases; and
WHEREAS, as the science of transplant continues to advance, new diseases are
being treated with bone marrow transplants; and
WHEREAS, R.S. 40:1263.2 established the Louisiana Organ Transplant Assistance
Program within the office of the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health; and
WHEREAS, through the program, the department educates residents of Louisiana
about the need for bone marrow donors, the procedures required to become registered as a
potential bone marrow donor, including the procedures for determining the person's tissue
type, and the medical procedures a donor must undergo to donate bone marrow or other
sources of blood stem cells and the attendant risks of the procedure; and
WHEREAS, the department is also directed to make special efforts to educate and
recruit minority populations to volunteer as potential bone marrow donors.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the Louisiana Department of Health to post information concerning bone
marrow donations on the department's website for dissemination by healthcare practitioners
to patients.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the information to be placed on the department's
website shall include but not be limited to all of the following:
(1)The need for bone marrow donations.
(2)Patient populations that would benefit from bone marrow donations.
(3)How to join the national bone marrow registry.
(4)How to acquire a free buccal swab kit from the national bone marrow
registry.
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature does hereby urge and request all
healthcare practitioners to provide this life-saving information to patients.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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