Bone Marrow Donor Program

For quite some time now people have been forwarding the link http://www.helpvinay.org/. I have heard of bone marrow transplants, but did not have much info on them. So when I heard of the drive in Minneapolis, I wanted to find out more. As always, Wiki had a good start into to the subject -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow_transplant
But I wanted to know more. http://www.marrow.org/ was the next stop, and it provided answers to most of my questions. I was a bit worried though when I read "Marrow donors can expect to feel some soreness in their lower back for a few days or longer." Having a minor back problem, it was natural for me to be worried. A bit more research indicated that unless a person has a serious back problem and has undergone surgeries, it should not be an issue. I thought of checking at the donor center. Yesterday I went to the donor drive at the Minnehaha park in Minneapolis and got all my doubts clarified with the representative there. I registered as a bone marrow donor and that should indicate the confidence that I got over the program.

The registeration is pretty simple. We need to swipe the inside of our cheeks with cotton buds (like the ones used to clean the ear) and give it back. There is nothing to it.

It feels so good now after registering for the program. I have taken my step towards helping someone. Hopefully more and more people participate in the donor program and Vinay and the others requiring a donor find one soon.

For information on a drive near you, visit http://www.helpvinay.org/dp/index.php?q=event
For more information on being a donor, visit http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/index.html

It is like blood donation, a donor's marrow is completely replaced within four to six weeks

Chikungunya

Over the past week I have heard quite a few people getting infected with Chikungunya. The name "Chikungunya" comes from Swahili for "that which bends up" referring to the positions that victims take to relieve the joint pain. Though the disease is not fatal, it causes body pain and makes the patient weak. Here is some info on Chikungunya that I googled out

• There was a Chikungunya outbreak in India 32 years ago.
  Wonder why no one seems to recognize the name!
• Chikungunya spreads only through daytime mosquito.
  Never knew that mosquitoes worked in shifts!
• France says drug against Chikungunya available soon.
  Why don't they just kill the mosquitoes? Wouldn't that be simpler and cheaper?
• For all those who believe that only India has mosquito problems, news is that France is more affected that India. Estimations have indicated that 110,000 people may have been infected by Chikungunya virus since March 2005 in La Réunion

A search on Chikungunya also took me to the site http://www.cbwinfo.com/, which is the site for information on chemical and biological weapons. Wondering why a common fever like disease finds a mention in such a site, I browsed a bit to get to this statement: "The disabling joint pain and fever, the lack of a suitable animal reservoir in Western countries and its lack of lethality make it a very "clean" weapon that could be used against key civilian installations". I am not sure if terrorists know about this. But then, there are numerous sites in the net to give such useful information