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Experts at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals emphasise on Importance of Early Detection and Intervention for Thalassemia & Sickle Cell Diseases in Children
India
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New Delhi, March 13, 2022:
Apollo Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy in Association with DATRI conducted an informative session at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals on Sunday to spread awareness about early detection and prevention of Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Diseases.
Addressed by Dr Gaurav Kharya, Clinical Lead at Centre for BMT & CT, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Haematology, Oncology and Immunology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Ms Sumati Misra, Head – Counseling & Transplant Centre Management, DATRI & Mr Sandeep Sachdeva (President, Ujjwal Donors Club), the session included conversations around treatment modalities like Bone Marrow Transplant, registry of donors and the societal impact that the patients and their families experience.
Dr Gaurav Kharya, Clinical Lead at Centre for BMT & CT, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Haematology, Oncology and Immunology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi said, “According to data around 10000 new cases of thalassemia and almost three times more new sickle cell patients are born each year in our country. As soon as the diagnosis is made, they are initiated on supportive care which has to go on for the entire life in form of blood transfusion, iron chelation etc. The only curative treatment for both these disorders is Bone Marrow Transplant.
Unfortunately, only 25-30% patients have HLA identical family donor available for donation, for remaining 70% they are lost in the absence of HLA identical donor. In recent years option of HLA matched unrelated donor BMT or half match family donor transplant has come up as a reasonable alternative with very encouraging outcomes. Hence it becomes extremely important to create awareness and educate people on early detection and early curative intervention in form of BMT.
This awareness drive has been conceptualized to create awareness about the curative option beyond HLA identical sibling donor BMT. Theis brings parents and care givers of patients treated in the past, parents of patients who intend to embark on this journey of BMT, transplant physicians, unrelated registry and social activists on a common platform.
Ms. Sumati Misra, Head – Counseling & Transplant Centre Management, DATRI said, “Even though we have 4.6 lakh registered donors in a country like India, we are less than 1% of the population. Each of us needs to help spread the awareness and counsel, and support matched donors. There are miles to go and many mountains to climb. DATRI’s mission is to give each patient a 2nd chance at life and awareness sessions like this only give us a platform to educate more and more people.”
Many people around the nation are in dire need of a bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy. But because of not finding a matching donor in time, transplants can’t get administered timely. Hence an upgraded Bone Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy Centre was strategically launched last year at Indraprastha Apollo
Hospitals with an objective to conduct clinical procedures to patients suffering from certain types of blood disorders, such as leukemia, myeloma, lymphoma, transfusion dependent thalassemia, sickle cell disease and other serious blood related immune system disorders. Equipped with state of the art facility Apollo’s Bone Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy Centre is one the most advanced and patient friendly BMT centers’ across North India
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