Thanks to the amazing success of the centres part of the Sankalp-Cure2Children network for Pediatric BMT, we are receiving more and more requests from families who have a thalassemic kid looking for the option of cure. While we do guide them on a case by case basis there are some key points which we have observed.

Anil and Manisha, both natives of Mumbai were married and leading their lives in the day to day hustle of the city. Few year later, Pradhnya, a little baby girl entered their lives.

People who read scientific data know that often they come across an abstract of a scientific publication which looks interesting but they cannot read the full article because of a prohibitive fee. Published scientific research seems to be within reach only to those who are part of elite academic institutions and business.

In 2002 India released the national blood policy with a firm commitment to phase out professional and replacement based blood donation practices in the country. 15 years later we are yet to see an end to replacement blood donations.

The Sankalp-CIMS Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant unit was started in April 2017 with an intent to provide the option of cure for thalassemiacs in Gujarat region. The centre is setup on a completely not for profit basis, and is the first transplant centre in Gujarat with an exclusive focus on thalassemia.  

For those patients who have related fully HLA matched donors (apart from siblings), does the relationship with the donor influence the outcome? We observed that there was a significant difference in outcomes between those patients who received bone marrow from a fully matched father and those who received it from their mother.