Kids suffering from thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder, can now hope for a new lease of life with Union Health Ministry roping in PSU giant Coal India ltd (CIl) to provide free bone-marrow transplant (BMT), the only permanent cure for their life-threatening disease. Under the project spanning three years, some 200 kids below 10 years age with thalassemia will be picked annually for the BMT. The CIl, under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, will dole out `10 lakh per patient for treatment.
Only those kids from the families having annual income below `5 lakhs will be identified for treatment by the Ministry in consultation with the States and the NGOs in the sector across the country. Four hospitals —Tata Medical Centre in Kolkata, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, and AIIMS, both in Delhi and CMC Vellore in Hyderabad — have been identified for conducting the BMT.
A senior Health Ministry official explained that most patients undergo blood transfusions as the cost of a transplant is high. However, due to repeated blood transfusion, iron gets accumulated in the body which in turn can damage the liver, kidneys, heart and other vital organs. Therefore, they have to use drugs or iron chelators, to bring down the iron level in the body.
A bone-marrow transplant is the only long-term cure for thalassemia. No doubt, a transplant is expensive, but its cost equals that of ten years of blood transfusion. BMT involves replacing the entire hematopoietic(blood) system in an affected person through guided chemotherapy and subsequently, substituting it with a healthy donor hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), the official added. The CIl aid is a ray of hope for such kids and their families, he said.
Satish Agnihotri, independent director with CIl said, "This is probably the first of its kind initiative from the PSU. Timely BMT can help such children lead a normal life. If CIl is able to bring a smile on the face of the kids, it will be a great achievement for us. We hope the Health Ministry in a long run provide treatment to such kids free of cost under its national programmes. "
However, not all patients are eligible for BMT. The process of finding a donor match for bone marrow is not easy as there are very few registered donors in India. While the Ministry has now started the process of setting up the registry, there are a very few players in the private sector.
For instance, Chennai-based NGO, DATRI is working towards creating a diverse database of potential blood stem cell donors that can be accessed by any patient, living anywhere in the world, in need of a blood stem cell transplant. Of the total world thalassemics, 10 per cent are born in India annually. As per WHO, there are around 1,00,000 children affected with thalassemia major, a blood disorder in which repeated blood transfusion is required.