| 15 Jun 2010 |
|
Hospital starts cord blood bank
- Text size
Tuesday, Jun 15, 2010
Gulf News
Manama Doha's Women's Hospital has become the first public hospital in the region to offer a private cord blood banking facility in partnership with the Virgin Health Bank Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTPQSTP
), Qatari media reported.
Families who have their babies delivered at the Women's Hospital can now have a contract with Virgin Health Bank to bank their newborn's cord blood for an initial period of 20 years.
The purpose is to collect and store their baby's cord blood stem cells to ensure they are available to treat disorders like beta thalassaemia, sickle cell anaemia and cerebral palsy and, assuming they are a match, they would also be available should they be required by a family member as part of a treatment plan for a range of illnesses such as leukaemia.
Currently, stem cells obtained from cord blood are used in the treatment of over 80 diseases, the Qatar Tribune reported yesterday.
Sharia-compliant
Speaking at the launch announcement on Sunday, Dr Rajan Jethwa, Virgin Health Bank-QSTPQSTP Chief Executive Officer, said that there were no ethical issues involved in cord blood banking since only adult stem cells were harvested and that the process has been confirmed as being Sharia-compliant.
He also stressed that the stem cells collected for storage would never be used for any experiment or research.
By Habib Toumi
© Gulf News 2010. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.