Greater awareness needed on blood stem cell donation: experts
Medical experts in Chennai are calling for increased public awareness regarding stem cell donor registration following a successful transplant case. Doctors emphasize that finding a matching donor remains a significant challenge for patients with life-threatening conditions like aplastic anaemia.
Why it matters
Increasing the donor registry pool is critical for improving survival rates for patients suffering from blood-related diseases who require transplants.
A 40-year-old man from Chennai, Samnu John, who underwent an unrelated stem cell transplant for severe aplastic anaemia, met his donor for the first time on Wednesday, two years post the transplant.
At the event, Aruna Rajendran, haemato-oncologist and bone marrow transplant physician at Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government General hospital, who headed the transplant, spoke about the need for more stem cell donor registration in the country.
“When a person is diagnosed with a life threatening condition such as severe aplastic anaemia, it leaves him or her vulnerable to infections, bleeding and with extreme exhaustion among many other complications. A stem cell transplant is the curative option for these patients but donor availability and funding for bone marrow transplantation is the biggest bottlenecks,” says Dr. Rajendran.
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