22.02.2012 21:09 Videos
Video: Health ministry's chief hematologist recommends people to have more children
The health ministry's chief hematologist has recommended people to have more children in order to give any of them a better chance of survival if he or she develops a deadly blood condition.
"If a single child falls ill, pediatric hematologists always advise the parents to have a second child," Anatol Uss told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.
"First, anything can happen to the gravelly ill child. Second, the birth of a second child can save the life of the first one. The more children the family has, the easier it is to find a [bone marrow] donor. If a family has five children, we always find a donor from among them," he said.
Few adult patients in Belarus get a bone marrow transplant because it is difficult to find a suitable donor. "Every year the health ministry sends up to 20 applications to the international donor registry, and each application costs 20,000 euros. Some 500,000 euros is spent on that annually, while these funds could be used by us for treating both our citizens and foreigners instead," Mr. Uss said, adding that Belarus planned to double the number of bone marrow transplants.
The expert called for creating a Belarusian bone marrow donor registry. "The technology of a bone marrow and stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor is the most expensive one in the world. It costs up to $500,000 in the United States, while in Western Europe the average cost is 250,000 euros. In our country is costs roughly 100,000 euros. That's why foreigners come to our country for such treatment. This is a very good export item," he said.
Natallya Milanovich, of the National Center for Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, noted that 170 such transplants had been performed in Belarus last year, including 70 on child patients. "The biggest problem for us is a transplant from an unrelated donor. This costs much money. There was one transplant from an unrelated donor in our center and 10 times as many in the children's cancer hospital," she said.
"If a single child falls ill, pediatric hematologists always advise the parents to have a second child," Anatol Uss told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.
"First, anything can happen to the gravelly ill child. Second, the birth of a second child can save the life of the first one. The more children the family has, the easier it is to find a [bone marrow] donor. If a family has five children, we always find a donor from among them," he said.
Few adult patients in Belarus get a bone marrow transplant because it is difficult to find a suitable donor. "Every year the health ministry sends up to 20 applications to the international donor registry, and each application costs 20,000 euros. Some 500,000 euros is spent on that annually, while these funds could be used by us for treating both our citizens and foreigners instead," Mr. Uss said, adding that Belarus planned to double the number of bone marrow transplants.
The expert called for creating a Belarusian bone marrow donor registry. "The technology of a bone marrow and stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor is the most expensive one in the world. It costs up to $500,000 in the United States, while in Western Europe the average cost is 250,000 euros. In our country is costs roughly 100,000 euros. That's why foreigners come to our country for such treatment. This is a very good export item," he said.
Natallya Milanovich, of the National Center for Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, noted that 170 such transplants had been performed in Belarus last year, including 70 on child patients. "The biggest problem for us is a transplant from an unrelated donor. This costs much money. There was one transplant from an unrelated donor in our center and 10 times as many in the children's cancer hospital," she said.
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