VIJAYAWADA: AP government’s Arogyasri scheme is helping patients get treatment for rare diseases, including bone marrow transplant (BMT) surgeries. An overwhelming 90 percent of these surgeries have been done under government-sponsored Arogyasri.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, consultant medical oncologist Dr. Krishna Reddy, BMT physician at Manipal Hospital, Vijayawada, announced that their hospital has reached the milestone of completing 50 successful bone marrow transplants, thereby saving lives of both children and adults. Majority of these patients had been operated under Arogyasri.
Another BMT physician Dr. Madhav Danthala explained that both autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants had been performed to treat a wide range of diseases, such as multiple myeloma, lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, APML, aplastic anaemia, neuroblastoma, Wilms tumour and Ewing sarcoma.
Dr. Madhav underlined that transplant-related mortality is amongst the lowest in India due to adoption of modern technology in treatment. “We have treated patients of all ages from Anantapur to East Godavari. Our youngest patient is a two-year-old girl, while oldest is 63 years.
Vijayawada Manipal Hospital director Dr. Sudhakar Kantipudi said their hospital is in forefront of performing rare procedures under Arogyasri scheme.
