3 children with rare blood disorders undergo successful bone marrow transplants at Egmore's ICH

CHENNAI: The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Government Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore, has completed 3 transplants under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS) since the unit became operational in September 2024.

Set up at a cost of Rs 5.9 crore, the unit provides life-saving treatments for blood disorders like thalassemia, aplastic anaemia and blood cancers for children.

“Though some diseases can be cured by bone marrow transplantation, there are still a lot of diseases and patients that require it. Stem cell transplant offers a hope for treating several genetic diseases and blood cancer. Only 25% of children are able to get a donor-match but they were able to get related donors and were successfully treated. Three of them are doing well,” said Dr Aruna Rajendran, paediatric haemato-oncologist, ICH.

Treatment of several genetic diseases and blood related disorders usually require a bone marrow transplantation, which costs more than Rs 15-20 lakh in a private hospital. Former director of ICH, Dr Rema Chandramohan, stated: “With affordability being a challenge for many families in case of genetic disorders, the unit at ICG is helping children with rare diseases get a stem cell transplant free of cost as the treatment is covered under CMCHIS, after a suitable match is found for them. The unit also provides follow-up treatment.”

Finding a suitable match for the transplantation is not possible for around 75% of the patients in India due to genetic diversity, unlike in the western countries, where around 90% of patients can find related donors. “With such limitations, there is a need for the community to donate blood and also stem cells. This will enable more children with rare genetic diseases to find unrelated donor matches and be treated successfully,” pointed out Dr Aruna.

The State Health Department is planning to start a public stem cell registry so that more children can get a bone marrow transplantation through unrelated matching donors. ICH will be made a regional referral hub to treat children with rare diseases coming from poor families.

“An Institute of Haemato-Oncology is being built and will be completed by early 2026. The regional cancer centres will be expanded in a phased manner to accommodate the demands of bone marrow transplantations,” explained Health Secretary Supriya Sahu. “We’re also in the stage of identifying and procuring the NextGen sequencing system for HLA typing and detecting blood cancers so that it’s self-sustainable three years after it begins.”