‘Collective action needed to deal with shortage of umbilical cord blood’

LUCKNOW: With precious umbilical cord blood being discarded, many Indians were being deprived of the possibility of receiving treatment for fatal blood-related disorders, said an expert. This, he added, was especially unfortunate in a country like India where there was a huge and continuously growing burden of such diseases.

“Less than 5,000 cords are banked in India, as compared to 600,000 banked (in public cord blood banks) globally,” said Lalit Jaiswal of MyCord, an organisation working in the area of private banking of cord blood.

“Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood are a source for treating various lifethreatening blood disorders such as leukaemia, lymphoma, platelet disorders, thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia,” he said in a press statement.

Jaiswal said that despite 25 million babies being born in India every year, a large number of Indians continued to remain deprived of treatment of fatal blood disorders for the want of a matching cord blood unit.

“To deal with the shortage of the umbilical cord blood, it is important for stakeholders in the market, society, medical fraternity and governing bodies to collectively take the necessary remedial action,” he said.

Explaining further, Jaiswal said it was only possible to find a match if HLA typing of each unit was done at the time of storage. “Else, it would be as redundant as a blood bank that does not have blood grouping,” he said.

HLA typing is used to match patients and donors for bone marrow or cord blood transplants.

STEM CELLS FROM UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD CAN HELP TREAT VARIOUS FATAL BLOOD DISORDERS