"Behavioral Strategies for Parents" Webinar Available Online

Dr. Lauren Mednick's presentation on "Behavioral Strategies for Parents of Children with Thalassemia," CAF's March 2 webinar, is now available for watching.

Lauren Mednick, PhD, is an assistant in Psychology at Children’s Hospital Boston and is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.  She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois and both her Master of Philosophy and her PhD in Clinical Child Psychology, with an emphasis on behavioral medicine, from The George Washington University.    Her subsequent clinical, teaching and research efforts have focused on helping children and families cope with medical stressors.  The majority of her time is spent in direct clinical care, conducting outpatient therapy with children and adolescents diagnosed with acute and chronic medical conditions, including thalassemia.    Dr. Mednick also has an interest in how a parent is coping impacts a child’s physical and emotional well-being and focuses much of her work on investigating stress and coping in parents of children diagnosed with various medical conditions.  CAF is thrilled to be able to offer the experience and knowledge that Dr. Mednick has learned working with families with thalassemia, as well as with other chronic conditions.

Kolkata conducts unique Thalassemia treatment

A Kolkata hospital conducted the first successful mixed stem cell (cord blood and bone marrow) transplant surgery to give new life to a child suffering form the HbE-Beta Thalassemia disease.
Dr. Ashish Mukherjee conducted the surgery on Apr 3 to treat a five year old boy named Moinam at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Cancer research Institute in Kolkata.

For conducting this treatment they took the stem cells from the cord blood of the second child (sister of Moinam) of Ashim Pal and Monisha Pal and then preserved it under specified conditions at CordLife, lrgest network of stem cell bank with full processing.

"When stem cells are needed to treat a life threatening disease, doctors ans can effectively predict transplant success by evaluating two factors-HLA compatibility and stem cell count," Prosanto Chowdhury, Medial Director, Cord Life India, said.

"Transplants like these confirm CordLife's technology and our assurance to parents who bank with us their baby's cord blood. HLA matching was undertaken which provided that the tissues of both the children matched and the treatment could proceed. This is the first case of mixed stem cell transplant in India," he said.

Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder in which the body produces an abnormal form of haemoglobin, the metallo protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.

However, in case of Thalassemia when an HLA identical sibling marrow donor is available, the chance of cure is currently as high as 90 percent.

Illustrating the complicated treatment, Dr. Ashish Mukherhjee, Director NCRI, said: "The first step was to destroy all the existing bone marrow cells for which the conditioning chemotheraphy was used. Then the donor's stem cells from two different sources were injected into the patient's body."

"Bone marrow stem cell, on the other hand leads to Graft Versus Host Disese which is triggered by the body's defence mechanism while the transfusion is being done. The two therapies can complement, not only increase the Stem Cell count but also reduce the chance of Graft versus Host disease and lead to a complete cure," Mukherjee said.

The stem cells that were transplanted in the young patient came from his sister's cord blood and bone marrow.

"It was Dr. Asish Mukherjee who gave our child a new life. He told us that our child will get cured and that was the assurance on which we were bagging upon," Ashim Kumar Pal, father of Moinam said. 

No marriage for Thalassemia couples in Sri Lanka

The Health Ministry will introduce legal provisions to forbid marriages between two Thalassemia carriers to eradicate the disease from Sri Lanka, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.

Minister Sirisena said the ministry has taken measures to make blood tests mandatory for every young couple before marriage.

“If the blood tests do not bring the desired results, the Health Ministry has no option but to bring legislations forbidding marriages between two Thalassemia carriers as Thalassemia is a hereditary disease. Our aim is to eradicate Thalassemia from Sri Lanka by 2015,” Minister Sirisena stressed. 

The government spends around Rs. 1.6 billion to treat Thalassemia patients annually and Rs. 350 million out of it is spent only on drugs. If Thalassemia which is a preventable disease could be eradicated, the government can utilize these funds for a better cause, he said.

Some 250,000 marriages are performed annually in Sri Lanka and offspring of 1,600 parents are born with Thalassemia. Latest data shows that there are 1,600 Thalassemia patients in the country and 160 of them are children.