Why The Need For Public Cord Blood Banks?
The availability of cord blood through a public program has the
great potential of making this cutting-edge technology available to
all who might need it, but could not afford to bank privately or
could not, for whatever reason, use their own stored stem cells.
Nearly two decades ago, concentrated research led to the use of
cord blood instead of bone marrow for stem cell transplantation.
Because of problems associated with bone marrow transplantation,
alternative sources for transplants were being sought out.
When bone marrow cells are harvested, it is a very
painful procedure that usually requires an identical match in order to work.
In addition to being costly, the entire process is very time consuming and stressful for all parties concerned.
As a Caucasian, the odds of finding a bone marrow donor is
approximately 20,000 to 1.The odds for Ethnic minority populations
are hundreds of thousands to one, as they are much less well
represented in the traditional bone marrow donor registries.
To date, over two thousand cord blood transplants have been performed.
Why Donate?
Donating your baby's cord blood is a way for you to preserve the
potentially lifesaving stem cells found in the blood of your
newborn's umbilical cord for the good of others.
The collection process itself is free, safe, and painless for you
and your baby because your cord blood is collected after your baby is
born and the umbilical cord is cut. If your cord blood meets certain
requirements and isn't used for medical research (if this is an issue
you can check first with the public bank to see what their policy
is), it will be placed on a donor registry. This registry can then be
accessed by transplant surgeons to treat a patient who needs a stem
cell transplant and is deemed a good match with your baby's blood.
Where?
Unfortunately, cord blood donation is not available in all areas. Check the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) list of affiliated collecting hospitals to see if the hospital where you plan to deliver your baby is listed, together with the contact number of the public bank that serves it. Donations can be accepted from participating banks and hospitals. If listed, you may call the public bank with any questions you have or if you would like to sign up with the program.
You can also check the NMDP's list of non-participating
banks. These banks have a wider network of collecting hospitals,
including prestigious organizations such as the New York Blood
Center.
Otherwise, call the NMDP at (800) 627-7692 to see if any new
options exist in your area.
What is the Government Doing?
An initial $10 million appropriation, part of the funding required
to establish a National Cord Blood Stem Cell Bank Network of existing
FDA-qualified public banks, has been approved by the Senate (Jan,
2004). The proposed bill in the Senate is to provide additional funds
to the banks so they can begin collecting, over a period of five
years, an inventory of 150,000 cord blood stem cell units to provide
life saving stem cell transplants for the thousands of patients each
year who need them and currently cannot get them from the "walking
donor" bone marrow registries (GAO report, October 2002)
