Cord blood collection problems

[Lee]

From the Arizona Republic newspaper.
Lack of patient access limits promising cell therapy
11 commentsby Ginger Rough - Aug. 30, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Among the many decisions that parents face before the birth of their child is a potentially critical one: whether to preserve their infant's umbilical-cord blood on the chance that he or she will need it someday to treat a serious illness.

Parents can pay thousands of dollars to privately store their newborn's umbilical-cord blood or they can donate the blood to a public bank for free.

Nine out of 10 new parents do neither, which means their children's umbilical cords are discarded as medical waste.

That discard rate is posing a threat to the expansion of a promising new health-care field.

Umbilical-cord blood is rife with stem cells, which can be used to treat dozens of illnesses such as leukemia, diabetes, lymphoma and stroke. But the lack of publicly banked samples makes it harder for patients to obtain a stem-cell match for use in therapy.

Few collection sites hinder expanded use

There are only 19 public collection and storage facilities in the country. Most have agreements with individual hospitals on the East or West coasts, making collection all but unavailable in many other areas.

There are no public banks that serve hospitals in Arizona. Most Arizona mothers interested in public donation have to call one of only two banks that accept nationwide donations. They must submit a complete medical history prior to entering the third trimester of pregnancy, fill out processing paperwork and arrange to mail the sample to the bank right after birth.

See link for complete story

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...-main0830.html