Morung Express News Dimapur | May 29 Say a person has a cancerous blood disorder. The person is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation; at the same time requires a stem cell (or bone marrow) transplant to regenerate or replace the cells destroyed during the therapy. For the transplant, the patient will in all certainty require a donor with a matching genetic makeup. While the treatment process itself is tough, finding a donor having a matching genetic makeup as that of the patient would be like re-enacting the proverbial ‘needle in the haystack’. This is where the role of gene pool registries comes in. The world population today has crossed the 7 billion mark but as per statistics there are only around 25 million donors registered to various stem cell registries or banks set up around the world. India despite its huge population is also not faring well in this aspect with only around 4 lakhs donors registered in its 4 known stem cell repositories. Stem cell repository advocates believe that augmenting the number of donors will go a long way in treating Leukemia, Aplastic Anaemia, Thalassemia etc. Genebandhu, a New Delhi based not-for-profit organisation is endeavouring in this direction. Kapil Gupta, co-founder and project co-ordinator of Genebandhu said that the aim of the organisation is to maintain a registry of stem cell donors from within the country. Currently, Gupta is in Nagaland to spread awareness and mobilise support for strengthening the stem cell donor base in India. Speaking at an awareness programme at Eden Hospital in Dimapur today, he said that Genebandhu presently has 13,000 registered donors in its registry and aims to take this number to 1 million by 2020. While informing that Genebandhu is one of only four organisations involved in the field in India, Gupta said the organisation “as a registry works with various hospitals to help find donors for patients” or Matched Unrelated Donors. He shared the idea of using India’s huge population to the advantage of stem cell therapy, which is available in only a few big hospitals in India. “When we have an extensive donor base in the registry the chances of a patient finding a match will increase.” It also entails that a patient in India will not have to look for donors abroad, which generally involves a huge financial toll on the family. Finding a match abroad, for instance from the USA, he said would currently cost Rs. 30-40 lakhs, excluding hospital expenses. The cost would get cut by almost a third if a match is found in India. As for the north-east, he said that the region has yet to have a registered donor. The people of region can begin by registering, he said, while emphasising that patients from the region have greater chance of finding “matches (or donors) sharing the same gene pool.” To register, one has to start early, preferably between the ages of 18-35. “Once a registered donor cross the age of 55, the person’s database is removed from the registry,” he informed. Stating “A lot of partnerships” will be required to maintain a robust stem cell donor registry, Gupta said that Nagaland can contribute too. “The idea is to make people aware and register,” he said while adding that he will be addressing students at two colleges in Dimapur on Tuesday and more as Genebandhu’s endeavour proceeds.
