World Marrow Donors' Day 2021: Apollo Hospital in Delhi Launches Revamped Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Unit

New Delhi, September 18: Keeping in mind the impact the COVID-19 has had on treatment of patients suffering from serious blood-related immune system disorders, a leading private facility here on Saturday launched a revamped, state-of-the-art bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy unit, hospital authorities said. The occasion coincided with World Marrow Donors' Day, celebrated globally on the third Saturday of September.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Delhi, in association with DATRI, a blood stem cells donors registry, has launched an upgraded Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy on its premises, the hospital said in a statement.

A bone marrow transplant is a clinical procedure that replaces an unhealthy bone marrow with 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.

As patients suffering from either of these diseases are immunocompromised, the pandemic had a "huge impact" on their timely treatment, the hospital authorities claimed. Considering the same, the new state-of-the-art centre has been strategically conceptualised to manage required long stay of such patients in the hospital, it said.

Similarly, the BMT follow-up OPD has been set up close to the centre for being able to prevent these immunocompromised patients from mixing with other patients and reducing their risk of catching secondary infections, doctors said.

To mark Marrow Donors' Day, Apollo hospital also hosted a survivors meet with their donors on Saturday. As finding a genetically matched donor is a gift of life, this meet indeed presented a great opportunity to inspire millions of other patients in need of a bone marrow transplant and also millions of voluntary donors who can give a gift of life, the statement said.

Dr Gaurav Kharya, clinical lead at Centre for BMT and CT and senior consultant, paediatric haematology, oncology and immunology, at the hospital, said, "The common symptoms of these patients included anemia, fever, persistent jaundice, very low levels of energy, frequent blood transfusions, bleeding manifestations, increased risk of infections and pain to name a few.

The only curative treatment for majority of these disorders is by offering a bone marrow transplant." "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," he said.

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