KOCHI: Nearly 200 people have registered as stem cell donors in the city in one of the mega drives conducted to create awareness about the humanitarian gesture that can save lives. The programme, conducted at Lulu Mall, also included a workshop on stem cell donation.
The mouth samples collected during the drive will be sent to the US to conduct tests to find out genetic matches. If any of the samples turns out to be a match for one of the numerous patients waiting for stem cell transplantation, the same will be intimated to the intended donor so that he or she can give blood for the donation.
According to Abey Sam John, Kerala coordinator of the voluntary organization Datri which keeps a registry of people willing to donate stem cells, the event, also supported by JCI Zone 20 and Lulu Mall, was a huge success. “More people are now coming forward to donate stem cells, but I would say that the awareness about the humanitarian gesture continues to be low in Kerala society. We will organise more such events in future,” he said.
According to him, 68 stem cell donations have taken in the country till date and of these six are from Kerala. The Datri registry for India has a list of 63,500 willing donors so far. Abey said that the procedure for stem cell donation was a simple one and similar to that of blood donation. “It’s a life saving measure, which is also completely safe for the donor. For thousands of patients suffering from blood disorders like leukemia, stem cell transplant is the last hope. But the chance of getting a genetic match is 1:20,000 to 1:2 million,” he said.
