An Australian, A Singaporean, & A South Indian – and it’s a victory for cross border stem cell therapy

Stem Cell Transplant: Hope & Life

For 22 year old S. Vigneshwaran blood cancer could have spelt the end. “We had lost all almost everything in five years of treatment. But my classmates took up the matter with my department head and they started raising funds.” The students of Anna University’s Guindy Engineering College raised a massive US$ 90,000, halfway to the estimated US$1,80,000 needed for stem cell therapy.

That’s when a philanthropic South Indian businessman stepped in to fill the gap.

Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia went through agonizing times. When they stumbled across possible treatments in stem cell therapy, they looked for options in India but ran across stumbling blocks:stem cell samples from from blood relatives did not match; and there was no cord blood bank in the country.

That’s when an unknown Australian donor stepped in to fill in the other gap. Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore, a Parkway hospital stepped in, and within a week, located the donor.

The end of the road for Vigneshwaran’s AML was when Singaporean Dr. Patrick Tan, Mount Elizabeth Hospital performed the transplant. Two years later, this week, he has been declared cured of a disease where once, untimely and tragic death was considered inevitable.

Cross Border Health is much more than medical tourism.

The engine that drives it is international co-operation, co-ordination and collaboration in the interests of patients. Vigneshwaran’s case also brings into focus the need for active government participation in encouraging stem cell research and therapy in India, support for patients in the face of astronomical costs, and the need to allow foreign donor participation in the country.

Vigneshwaran’s Dream

Vigneshwaran hopes that his story of successfully fighting the disease will encourage hundreds of blood cancer patients and their family members to opt vigorously for stem cell therapy.

The End of the Superstitious approach to Stem Cell Therapy – the start of a worldwide political and scientific movement

Stem Cell research and therapy has been shadowed by skewed opinions and religious undertones. The issues are too wide to discuss in a blog. Suffice it to say that there is movement on the issues.

For example, recently,

Indian Union Minister for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, said the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will invest approximately US$ 5 million over a period of two months for strengthening stem cell research in the country.

And to  present the icing on the Cake

President Obama will begin the process of dismantling barriers to research in the US in this vital area that promises effective treatments for grave diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes.

 

Referance

1. K PraveenKumar, Times of India 07 Mar 2009.

Link

1. https://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=pastissues2&BaseHref=CAP/2009/03/07&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00105&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T