Thai people store umbilical cord blood overseas

Wealthy mothers in Thailand are racing to store the umbilical cord blood of their babies that have just been born in a laboratory in Singapore. It is hoped this will be a health safety guarantee for their children to perform stem cell transplantation in the event that their children later have blood problems that can lead to death.

Singapore - Camden Healing Center (Photo: kajima)

Thai health workers say that treating patients with stem cells from the patient's umbilical cord blood is not currently available in the country because of the high cost of storing umbilical cord blood.

Recently, during a visit to a laboratory at the Camden Healing Center (Singapore) where the umbilical cord blood storage device was provided, Nisarat Kasatri, a doctor at Samitivej Hospital (Bangkok, Thailand), said about 10 up to 15% of Thai and foreign mothers in Samitivej accept to pay a large sum of money to transfer their child's umbilical cord blood to a lab at the Camden Healing Center.

Umbilical cord blood was taken when the child was born. The cost to transfer and store cord blood for each customer is 50,000 baht in the first year and 6,000 baht for the following years.

The reason is that mothers have to "grind their teeth" to spend such a large amount because they are afraid that their children will suffer from blood diseases with a high risk of death such as leukemia and Thalassemia, or anemia in the sea. , haemolytic anemia, genetic loss, sickle cell anemia (a disease caused by abnormalities in the synthesis of hemoglobin, resulting in reduced red blood cell survival and anemia). At that time, the doctors will take stem cells from cord blood to transplant into the patient's body to treat the disease.

According to Dr. Nisarat, the cost of storing umbilical cord blood is more expensive than the cost of stem cell transplantation. Therefore, some people argue that this is not worth it because the opportunity to use umbilical cord blood is so small that no one expects their children to suffer from serious diseases.

Steven Fang, director of Cygenics, which runs the laboratory at the Camden Healing Center and provides umbilical cord blood storage services for Singaporeans and Thai people, says the time to store umbilical cord blood is up to 20. Every year and every year, the company conducts tests to check if cells can survive. Umbilical cord blood is collected only when the baby is born and is only enough for one transplant.

Samitivej Hospital - Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: bangkokdentalspa)

Fang said the patient's stem cells from the umbilical cord blood were the best source because of the perfect genetic fit to regenerate the damaged cells. A person's blood stock can also be used for their siblings because of their high genetic suitability. Without genetic matching, the body of the stem cell transplant will excrete these cells. Therefore, the use of stem cells of complete strangers will be much more difficult.

Sirilak Piancharoen, health worker at the National Blood Center of the Thai Red Cross, said the center has also provided cord blood storage services since 2001 but for a different purpose than the Singapore company. The umbilical cord blood collection center of more than 300 donors treated completely unfamiliar people. So far, the Center has used stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood to treat 3 patients with blood diseases. However, according to Sirilak, the treatment opportunity is very fragile because the genetic matching rate is 1: 50,000. However, the umbilical cord blood storage for later use for patients is not common in Thailand because the reserve cost is up to 10,000 baht / week.

Minh Thuong