Cord Blood Bank Saves Toddler Suffering From Fatal Disease
By Ashraf Safdar, Channel NewsAsia
22th May 2007
SINGAPORE: A two-year-old toddler has made history in Singapore.
The boy, who suffers from a fatal disease, is the first to receive cord blood from the only public cord blood bank in Singapore.
The boy's name has been withheld for now.
Just over a year ago, the boy was fighting for his life.
He was suffering from viral, bone and fungal infections.
His condition was critical.
But after receiving a cord blood transplant in May last year, the boy is now better.
Associate Professor Tan Ah Moy, Head of Paediatric Haematology\Oncology, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, said: "Cord blood is actually blood from the umbilical cord, after the baby is delivered. The cord blood can be harvested from the placenta, and it actually has a lot of good stem cells that are able to grow into body defence systems cells, the red blood cells and the platelets in the body."
And helping the boy get better is a positive match between his blood type and what was available in Singapore's only public cord blood bank.
Dr William Hwang, Medical Director, Singapore Cord Blood Bank, said: "With cord blood itself, you can take some degree of mismatch for the transplant. Therefore, many patients who are not able to find that perfectly matched donor for transplants, will be able to find it with cord blood, once your cord blood registry has sufficient donors of the right ethnic mix to meet the needs of the population."
Dr Hwang hopes his cord blood bank can grow from the current 2,000 units to 10,000.
With more units, patients would have an 80 percent chance of finding a match from an unrelated donor, which means more lives can be saved. - CNA/ir
