Cord Blood Banks

Some of my friends complain I mostly write useless stuff in my blog, which is true to a large extent. And being the big sport that I am, I accept those ridiculing with a big grin and write more useless stuff :) So, when my friend Karthick emailed the following about this enlightening topic to our friends group, I found it very informative as well as interesting and hence thought of sharing it here with all of you. This will be/ might be useful for folks who are planning for a childbirth in the near future. So, here it is, in my friend's words:

In today's age of high incidence of cancer and genetic diseases, stem cells, or cells that have the ability to become different other kinds of cells (like blood cells, kidney cells, lung cells etc.) are very valuable in treating those diseases. A specific kind of stem cells called the `blood stem cells' is particularly important. These are a kind of stem cells which can only become different kinds of `blood cells' (red blood cells, white blood cells etc.). These are found in the blood and the bone marrow. Basically to put it in layman terms, these are ones that are transferred in a bone marrow transplant operation, which is done to cure these diseases.

But for a bone marrow transplant operation, you have to go through the tedious process of finding a donor whose stem cells should match yours. Here in the US, though the National Marrow Donor Program maintains a registry of such willing donors, looks like 50% of all patients needing a transplant cannot find a matching bone marrow donor. I am sure the chances of finding a matching donor in India should be just about the same or probably lesser.

And so this is where the subject of this post comes in. Bcos these blood stem cells are found in one other interesting source – the child's own blood in the umbilical cord during childbirth. These stem cells in the umbilical blood usually go waste as they are thrown away during childbirth. On the other hand, if they are stored in a bank, they could potentially be very valuable in case of the child needing treatment in the future.

Basically, the child need not go searching for a donor or worry about the donor's stem cell matching it well. So, one can think of this as a kind of "medical insurance". The current costs for storing the cells for a period of about 21 years is around Rupees 60K which seemed as an amount many will find it affordable.

This site has all the details about the pros & cons of cord blood banks.

Only on sharing this with my friends here at work, I came to know that this is something every new parent in the US is being made aware of and that most of them do not go for it, as it is slightly pricey. Looks like you have to pay a premium every month towards this medical insurance and hence even parents with well-paid jobs, do not take up the option. Anyway, found these information very interesting and what else can I do other than post it here.