“We built from scratches…so we can share our experience and contribute in Bangladesh Centre,” Dr Jyoti Shanker Raychaudhuri, head of the BMT Department of the hospital said in an interaction in Dhaka Saturday night.
A Bangladeshi organisation ‘Caring India’ that helps patients to see Indian doctors brought Dr Raychaudhuri and Liver Transplant specialist Dr Neerav Goyal of Apollo Hospitals to Dhaka and interact with the members of Uttara Club.
Indian Apollo Hospitals are famed for its success rate in bone marrow transplants.
Bangladesh began the first transplant in Mar 2014 with the support of Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
So far, nearly 30 patients have undergone the procedures. Costs are less than a third of what it costs abroad.
But the centre is offering ‘autologous’ transplant procedure in which one’s own bone marrow is used.
Apollo Hospitals can perform both the procedures.
Dr Raychaudhuri said bone marrow transplant is needed to treat different types of blood cancer, certain genetic blood and immunity disorders like thalassemia, and severe aplastic anaemia.
He said diabetic children’s insulin dependency can be cut significantly through bone marrow transplant.
He, however, stressed on early diagnosis of the disease so that the procedure can be done at the earliest.
“Sooner is the better. We do not get desired outcomes at the later stage transplant,” he said, adding that in 20 percent cases there are chances of relapse.
“But we are using newer targeted therapies to treat the relapse cases,” he said.
Caring India’s Director Shahnul Hasan Khan also spoke at the event.