Breaking the myth, the doctors explained how the umbilical cord can’t help curing any blood disease procured by baby, in fact, another umbilical cord is required by a perfect match to execute the treatment.

Indian doctors are striving to establish umbilical cord blood bank made out of donated cords instead of preserving them for private use. It is proven that the donor child can’t make accessible use out of the blood cells of the umbilical cord of a child. Hence, the doctors have initiated to create an aggregate of donated cords in an umbilical cord blood bank which can be utilized after finding the perfect match.

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Lalit Jaiswal, Director of CelluGen Biotech and pioneer of pool banking of stem cells in India said, “People have long been misled into thinking that if they preserve the cord blood of their child, then this blood will be able to cure blood disorders that child or a sibling who might have the misfortune to contract such a disease. However, most of the blood disorders are genetic in nature. If a child contracts a blood disease, then his own blood cannot cure it. He or she will need cord blood of another person with the perfect match to be able to use it for therapy. Therefore, preservation for self-use is pointless and a waste of money. Instead, a public pool of cord blood will help people find the perfect match.”

Primarily, In the 1990s America was first to introduce Private Umbilical Cord Blood bank after the first successful cord blood transplant in France in 1988 which paved the way for cord blood as an alternative source to bone marrow-derived stem cells whereas both are the approved stem cell treatment for blood-related disorder sufferers.

Also, Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant, at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon, stated, “Another major issue is that umbilical cords that have been preserved do not have human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing (HLA is done to match genetically similar individuals in the hope of performing a tissue transplantation). It is like having a blood bank, but without categorizing the blood into various blood groups, which is why there is a need of heavy investment to convert private banks into a public pool with HLA typing and cord blood cells preserved in a manner that they can be used again.”

The doctors are aiming towards better solution and option that to be evolved, the better it future it will become for children and their parents. The umbilical cord blood bank would be able to provide better chances of curing fatal blood diseases that arouse in babies.

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Source: The Sunday Guardian