I often have to field enquiries about the status of government funded cord blood banking in Malaysia. A doctor representing a research committee in Malaysia has also published an article to inform the public that cord blood is free to donate but refrains from informing us how much it would cost taxpayers or patients requiring the stem cells. The article also does not inform us of how many requests it has received and if any transplants have been conducted with the units collected after 3 years of operations.
You can find another related blog entry here.
I managed to find a press release from the time when the government funded cord blood bank was launched by the former Minister of Health. As the article is no longer available on the news sites, I thought it best to reproduce it wholly as a record of its direction at the time of launch. I haven't seen an update since then, but will definitely post an entry if I do.
StemLife did propose to assist the local health authorities back in 2002/03 with the establishing and daily operations of a public stem cell bank for all Malaysians, after all, we have already got the infrastructure, network and staff. But, a major concern from the health authorities was liability should any legal action arise from the birthing process from which cord blood was collected. In any case, the banking of cord blood stem cells should still be encouraged privately to grow the number of units banked. In the future with technological improvements, clients who have banked their units privately may be encouraged to donate their cells towards saving another person's life. Without the units banked in the first place, the resource will never be available.
On a more controversial note, maybe governments should make cord blood stem cell banking for every family a law, unless any factors prevent the parents from doing so... otherwise donation of units will be continuous hard work and a tougher recruitment process than obtaining units for blood donation or organ transplantation.
Unlike blood donation, cord blood donors can't contribute a unit every three to six months nor a unit replaced if retrieved by someone else, so the implications of the cord blood donation much more complicated to explain.
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October 09, 2003 20:04 PM
Malaysia Supplying Cord Blood To Malays Of The World
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 (Bernama) -- The National Blood Bank here is the
first in the world to offer an umbilical cord blood service for Malays
all over the country, Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said here on
Thursday.
He said the service, introduced by the bank in July last year, was also
available to Malays from other countries.
"Every race has a different composition in their blood and if they do
not match, it cannot be used. Since the bank is the first ever centre to
offer such a service, it can save the lives of Malays from other
countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the United States and
England," he told a media conference after the official opening of
National Blood Bank by the Prime Minister's wife, Datin Seri Dr Siti
Hasmah Mohd Ali, here on Thursday.
Chua said the bank had so far collected 580 units of umbilical cord
blood but only 193 units could be stored in special rooms with a
temperature of less than 200 degrees Celcius and useable.
He added that an infant's umbilical cord blood was rich with stem cells
and it gave hope to treating 60 types of diseases such as cancer,
blood-related problems and the body's immune system.
Chua said the bank would also forge cooperation with various foreign
institutions, especially those in the United States, England and Taiwan,
in providing umbilical cord blood exchange services and other related
services.
He added that various efforts were undertaken to upgrade the centre's
services to make it a world-class facility. Among them was making the
bank a research and development centre for umbilical cord blood.
In his speech earlier, Chua said that in the future the bank would be
responsible for eight regional blood service centres planned for
construction.
--BERNAMA
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