Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on Monday inaugurated its first bone marrow transplantation and stem cell therapy centre; a big leap in healthcare facilities.
"With the new facility, it will worth Tk 0.3-0.5 million for a bone marrow transplant (BMT) which usually claimed Tk 2.0 million in other countries," BSMMU vice-chancellor Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed said as the chief guest while inaugurating the centre for blood, bone marrow transplantation and stem cell therapy.
BMT is a procedure by which damaged bone marrow -- the soft and spongy tissue inside the bones -- is replaced with healthy bone marrow stem cells, the vice-chancellor said.
A liver transplant costs Tk 2.0 million and a kidney transplant costs Tk 4.0 million at the BSMMU while the bone marrow transplant will cost Tk 0.3 million, he added.
The hospital performed a successful liver transplant last year and both the liver donor and recipient were healthy, he added, hoping that patients who get treatment from the bone marrow transplantation centre would also be good in future.
The BSMMU would also introduce Robotic surgery and hair implants soon, he added.
As many as 17 kidney transplants had been done successfully at BSMMU super specialised hospitals at low cost in the last four months.
BSMMU also performed the first cadaveric transplant and separation of conjoined twins, Prof Dr Ahmed said.
Chairman of the Hematology Department Prof Dr Salahuddin Shah presided over the event and said it is estimated that every year about 8,000-10,000 people die of blood cancer and other blood disorders in the country while another 12,000 are affected by blood disorders.
Allogeneic transplant is the process, in which stem cells of another person are used to cure a patient while autologous stem cell transplant uses the patient's own stem cells.
Before, both the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and BSMMU had facilities for autologous BMT, which uses healthy stem cells from other parts of a patient's body in the transplant.
However, the procedure is not suitable for more critical patients suffering from leukaemia, thalassemia and aplastic anemia. They require an allogeneic procedure which uses stem cells from unrelated donors.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
