A free health camp for thalassemic children from Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar will be organised in Patna on November 14 to conduct human leukocyte antigen (HLA) test – a mandatory but costly investigation, not done in Bihar, to check for cells that match the patient, before undergoing bone marrow transplant (BMT), said Mukesh Hissaria, a founder of the Maa Vaishnodevi Seva Samiti that manages Patna’s Maa Blood Centre.
“A team of doctors from Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital will be here at Patna’s Maharana Pratap Bhawan at Dinkar Golambar, Rajendra Nagar, where we are conducting the camp to screen children below 11 years of age for bone marrow transplant. Germany’s DKMS BMST Foundation India will take the swab samples of the patient and those of his parents and siblings for the HLA test at Germany, to be done free of cost at the camp. The result of the test, which costs anything between ₹25,000 and ₹50,000 depending on the number of samples to be tested, will take six months time,” said Hissaria.
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“Thalassemic children whose bone marrow samples match 100% with their parents or their siblings in the HLA test, will then be shortlisted for bone marrow transplant,” he added.
As many as 38 children were selected for bone marrow transplant in the first HLA camp the Maa Vaishnodevi Seva Samiti had organised for thalassemic children on February 23, 2020. Of them, 13 underwent the procedure of which 11 was successful, said Hissaria.
The Centre and state governments and the Coal India Limited fund the bone marrow transplant of poor thalassemic children, done at the Christian Medical College, Vellore.
“The Coal India Limited sponsors ₹10 lakh, the Bihar government up to ₹6 lakh and the Centre ₹3 lakh for bone marrow transplant of poor children whose parents’ annual income is less than ₹2.5 lakh,” he added.
“The Maa Vaishnodevi Seva Samiti is the only organisation in the state to organise such a camp for thalassemic children and facilitate their bone marrow transplant through funding from public sector,” said a senior officer of the health department.
“We support thalassemic children with blood transfusion through our day-care centre at the Patna Medical College Hospital. However, HLA tests and bone marrow transplants of such children are not done in the state,” he added.
Bihar has around 1,000 children suffering from thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes the body to have less haemoglobin than normal.
