Indians Becoming Aware of Preserving Cord Blood as an Insurance for Their Children
Priya Dutt, MP, compares storing umbilical cord blood to taking out life insurance. Among others, Raveena Tandon, Tamil film actor Madhavan’s wife-Sarita and railway minister Lalu Prasad’s daughter are also banking cord blood.
However, along with these celebrities, many middle class parents are also taking the ‘insurance’ by storing cord blood in private banks.
Though stem cell therapy is still at a nascent stage, more Indians are reposing their faith in it by storing the umbilical cord, which connects the foetus with the mother, in the private cord blood banks mushrooming in the country.
According to researchers, stem cells have the potential to help cure many life-threatening ailments like leukaemia, strokes, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, inherited disorders and all other deficiencies of the immune system. It is estimated that roughly 128 million people suffer from diseases that could be effectively treated or cured through stem cells.
According to Abhaya Kumar, CEO, LifeCell India, the first private cord blood stem cell banking service in India, the segment is booming. He is of the opinion that apart from rich couples, more middle class families are coming to the front to use the banking facility.
LifeCell India, which provides umbilical cord stem cell banking facility, charges enrolment fee Rs 5,000, processing fee of Rs 22,000 and storage fee per year (for 21 years) Rs 2,900. The cost for one time storage plan including enrolment, processing and storage fees for 21 years comes to around Rs 59,900. LifeCell, which has storage capacity for 15,000 samples, operates in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gurgaon and Kolkata.
Reliance Life Sciences, another private cord blood bank, charges Rs 88,000 as first time cost: with annual instalment of Rs 7,000. It has its storage facility in Mumbai, but samples can be collected from other cities and shipped here within 24 hours.
The Pune-based Cord Life Biotech, which started operations last year, has plans to expand its services to various cities in Maharashtra and major metros in a few years.
However, experts are still concerned over the quality of the mushrooming centres.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Hi,
It is a nice article. In the article it is specified that the stem cell storage and the fees are for 21 years of a child. I want to know what happens to the storage after 21 years? Is the storage can be done only upto 21 years? After 21 years also will it retain it’s vitality so that it can be used to treat the child. Because we can not expect the desease will come only with in 21 years. It can be after 21 years also. At this stage what about the stem cell storage?
Please let me know as soon as possible. Because we are thinking of opting for the storage of my sister’s baby.
Thanks,
Geetha.