Doctors at Bangladesh’s first-ever bone marrow transplant unit conducted the second stem cell transplant on Saturday even as the first patient was released from the hospital and recovering fast at home.
Prof MA Khan who led the team told bdnews24.com that they had done the second procedure “successfully”.
The first patient Omar Ali was released from the hospital on Apr 5 and he told journalists on Saturday that he was “fine”.“I gained strength,” he said over phone from his Rangpur residence.
The 52-year-old banker has been suffering from a kind of bone cancer since 2009.
Doctors started transplanting back his stem cells on Mar 10 at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
Ali said he was “not feeling any physical problem at this moment” and come to Dhaka for follow-up.
“I could stay at Dhaka, but I was not comfortable with Dhaka’s weather,” he said.
Prof Khan said Saturday’s patient Md Alamgir Hossain was also suffering from multiple myeloma.
“The procedure has been successful. He will stay in the hospital till his blood count recovers. Next two weeks is critical,” he said.
The bone marrow transplant unit has opened “a new era” of medical opportunities in Bangladesh where, according to the health minister, more than 11 percent of the total cancer patients suffer from blood cancer that affects production and function of blood cells.
But patients have to travel abroad and spend millions for such transplant.
Ali said he had to spend Tk 240,000 only. “Basically I had to buy medicines, mostly foreign drugs which were not supplied from DMCH and also some costly tests from outside hospitals.”
The hospital did not charge anything since authorities earlier said they had selected some patients for carrying out the procedure free of cost at least for the first three months.
Prof Khan said 90 percent patients get fully cured and internationally it has been observed that only in 10 percent cases the disease recurs.
The process of introducing such sophisticated medical technology in Bangladesh began in Oct 20 when the centre was inaugurated.
The government tied up with the Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and trained up nurses and doctors for the procedure.
Doctors call the current transplant procedure ‘autologous’ in which the patient’s own bone marrow is used.
Stem cells were harvested from the patient and frozen while drugs were given to remove the cells that were causing the damage before transplanting them back.
The centre has five isolated cabins where as many patients can be treated at a time.
But it has decided not to treat more than 20 cases in the first six months to learn about the whole procedure ‘effectively’.
Before staring the procedure, a specialist from Vellore Christian Medical College and Hospital visited the centre on Feb 1 and reported back about its preparations to start the procedure.
MGH doctors analysed the report and then gave their go ahead.
Officials earlier said for an autologous procedure, the hospital will charge between Tk 0.5 and 0.6 million while for the allogeneic in which bone marrow of siblings or donors are used would be between Tk 1 million and 1.5 million depending on patients.
The second procedure, allogeneic, is more critical and so Prof Khan expects to start it once the autologous procedure became successful.
He earlier said they would look forward to form public-private partnership (PPP) or cost-sharing ways to keep the prices low. – bdnews24.com
