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World Marrow Donor Day: Bone Marrow Transplant Is The Only Cure For Most Fatal Blood Disorders

World Marrow Donor Day: Bone Marrow Transplant Is The Only Cure For Most Fatal Blood Disorders
Bone Marrow Transplant

For any patient to undergo a Bone Marrow Transplant, a matched donor is required, which sometimes can be siblings, rarely parents or an unrelated donor.

Written by Longjam Dineshwori |Updated : September 18, 2021 5:38 PM IST

A bone marrow transplant is a clinical procedure that replaces an unhealthy bone marrow with the healthy cells. It is administered to the 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.

World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) is celebrated all over the world every 3rd Saturday of September to thank all blood stem cell donors worldwide. The day is also dedicated to raise awareness among the public and policymakers about the importance of stem cell donation and the impact of blood stem cell transplantation on a patients' life.

Beware of life-threatening diseases related to blood

There are various life limiting or life-threatening diseases related to blood. The common symptoms of such diseases include anemia, fever, persistent jaundice, very low levels of energy, frequent blood transfusions, bleeding manifestations, increased risk of infections and pain to name a few.

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"The only curative treatment for majority of these disorders is by offering a Bone Marrow Transplant," said Dr Gaurav Kharya, Clinical Lead at Centre for BMT & CT, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Haematology, Oncology and Immunology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi.

According to Dr Kharya, for any patient to undergo a BMT, preferably a 10/10 HLA matched donor is required, which sometimes can be siblings, rarely parents or an unrelated donor.

Who can register as Blood Stem Cell donors? Any healthy individual between the age of 18 years to 50 years.

Many patients still waiting for matching donors

As finding a genetically matched donor is a gift of life, each new donor registered is a ray of hope for patients on the waiting list.

"Even though we have 4.6 lakh registered donors in a country like India, we are less than 1% of the population," said Sumati Misra, Head - Counseling & Transplant Centre Management, DATRI.

DATRI is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2009 with a mission to save lives of those suffering from fatal blood disorders. It is considered a pioneer in the field of Blood Stem Cell Donation, as well as India's largest Unrelated Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry.

Sumati added, "While we celebrate WMDD and the lives gifted, we need to also think about the patients still waiting for a match. Each of us needs to help spread the awareness and counsel and support matched donors."

Bone Marrow Transplant during COVID-19

On the occasion of World Marrow Donor Day, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in association with Datri launched an upgraded Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy in its premises.

As patients suffering from fatal blood disorders are immunocompromised, the pandemic had a huge impact on their timely treatment.

Considering the same, the Centre has been strategically conceptualized to manage required long stay of such patients in the hospital. The BMT follow up OPD has also been set up close to the Centre in order to prevent these immunocompromised patients from mixing with other patients and reducing their risk of catching the secondary infections, the hospital said in a release.

Further, to commemorate the Marrow Donor Day, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and DATRI jointly hosted a survivor's meet with their donor's on Saturday.