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August 2007 NHM Health Focus: Minority Donation and Transplantation
National Minority Donor Awareness Day occurs every year on August 1, but the importance of the subject is such that it is promoted throughout the month and the year. Donor Awareness events promote healthy living and disease prevention as they underscore the need for people to sign donor cards and have discussions with their families about their wishes to become donors. Public events held through out the year encourage people to come together to increase awareness of the need for more tissue and organ donations and to promote lifestyle changes that will reduce the need for such donations. One of the larger events was held July 28, 2007 in Detroit. Families and friends at Life Walk shared food, fun and the message that "one can extend life through organ and tissue donation…one step at a time." The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) reports more than 97,000 individuals are awaiting organ transplants. Of these individuals, more than half are African American, Hispanic, or Asian. More than 29,000 individuals will wait more than three years before an appropriate donor is found; many will die before an organ becomes available. Health lifestyle choices have been shown to reduce the need for transplantation. Diabetes, high blood pressure, alcohol and substance abuse, poor nutrition and lack of exercise are among the behaviors and diseases that increase the need for transplantation. For more information on transplantation prevention please visit OrganDonor.gov Other sources of transplantation prevention information include:
Decreasing the gap between the need for organs and number of organs available also depends upon increasing the number of donors, especially the number of minority donors. Individuals with similar ethnic backgrounds are more likely to have compatible tissue matches making donation and transplantation possible. Organ and tissue donation is a family decision. Potential donors are urged to make their wishes known in writing to the members of their family. It is easier for family members to carry out the wishes of a loved one if they know what those wishes are. Related resources on Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum (AE@NHM) include:
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