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Co-founder and project co-ordinator Gene Bandhu Kapil Gupta addressing on Stem cell therapy and its recent advances at Eden Medical Centre, Dimapur, on Monday.[/caption]
Staff Reporter
Dimapur, May 29 (EMN): Considering the urgency to sensitise the masses on stem cell donation, one-day awareness programme on “stem cell therapy and its recent advances” was organised by Eden Medical Centre in collaboration with Gene Bandhu at Eden Medical Centre, Dimapur, with Co-founder and project co-ordinator Gene Bandhu, Kapil Gupta, as the resource person on Monday.
Stem cell transplant is required for blood disorders and there are only four stem cell registration centres in India with barely 13000 members registered in Gene Bandhu at present for a target of 1 million donors, said Gupta. Elaborating on the world scenario, he said there are 78 registries worldwide with about 25 million registered stem cell donors where only two lakh donors are registered in India, which makes the treatment procedure costly for a patient as most of the matches are not found in India and the cost involved is high ranging from Rs 30 lakhs to Rs 40 lakhs to receive donors from outside the country.
The minimum cost involved in India alone is Rs 10 lakhs while the act of donation by the donors is voluntary with no remuneration involved, added Gupta.
“The probability of finding a match for Indians is 1:10,000 because of the scarce representation in international registries and hence there is an urgent need for building Indian voluntary stem cell donor pool,” propounded Gupta.
For any blood disorder, stem cell transplant is the last order and to find a donor for stem cell transplant a registry is required to track matching donors and this is when Gene Bandhu’s role is crucial. Gene Bandhu, a not-for-profit, based in Delhi aims at building a repository of genetically matched stem cell donors for patients suffering from disorders. Gene Bandhu as a registry works with various hospitals to help find Matched Unrelated Donor (MUD), explained the Co-Founder of the organisation.
Gupta remarked that to help patients, a good number of databases are required so that there is convenient in finding a match and make the treatment affordable. Also Gupta observed that there are no donors registered from northeast region which is why Gene Bandhu is working on creating awareness in the region.
Advocating for more donors to come forward, he said youth are the target audience as the age group between 18-35 years are the most productive age with 55 years as the age limit to be a donor.
Gupta will be organising an awareness programme for the students of Government College, Dimapur, and SM College, Dimapur, on Tuesday and a registration drive will be held at Eden Medical Centre on the same day.
