The first bone marrow transplantation in the country, which was scheduled for October 26 at the lone bone marrow transplantation centre at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, has been halted due to ongoing political unrest. The transplantation was halted as most of the experts from Massachusetts General Hospital, the teaching hospital of the Harvard Medical School in United States, had already left Bangladesh, the centre in-charge MA Khan told New Age on Monday.
He said that the experts went back as they had received instruction form the US embassy to leave the country due to the ongoing situation.
A meeting held at the DMCH on Sunday decided that a new date would be fixed later for the first bone marrow transplantation, MA Khan said.
‘The foreign experts will return to Bangladesh after fixing the new schedule,’ he added.
The first bone marrow transplantation centre in the country was inaugurated at the new extension building of the DMCH on 20 October by health minister AFM Ruhal Haque.
Massachusetts General Hospital has given the technical support to build the centre and train doctors and nurses at the centre.
MA Khan said that the patients, from whom they collected ‘stem cells’, were already sent back to home.
‘Generally doctors wait three to four weeks after collecting the cells,’ he said adding that they had preserved the cells at a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius.
‘These cells could be preserved for 20 years or even more,’ he said adding that it could be transplanted any time.
Dhaka Medical College project director for extension and modernisation Baizid Khurshid Riaz said they had already dealt with five patients for transplantation and collected ‘stem cells’ from three
of them.
They were scheduled for October 26 to transplant ‘stem cell’ to one of those patients, Jamal, 28.
There are five cabins dedicated for the bone marrow transplantation patients at the centre, he said.
By bone marrow transplantation, damaged bone marrow is replaced with healthy bone marrow stem cells, said experts.
Replacement of bone marrow, the soft, spongy tissue inside bones, is needed to treat different types of deadly anaemia and cancer including leukaemia, lymphomas such as Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, and aplastic anaemia and immune-deficiency disorders.
-With New Age input
