Despite the miraculous potential of stem cell cord blood to treat various life-threatening diseases, the public cord blood banks are getting limited donations. Why? There are many reasons for this. The common ones are inadequate equipment, lack of awareness among people, and fund problems. However, the major reason is that cord blood donors want to save the stem cells for their own family use.
However, latest reports prove that public cord blood banks are more beneficial for donors than other banks. Let’s see how.
Benefits Of Donating Cord Blood At Public Banks
You can hardly use the saved cord blood for your immediate members. This is good because cord blood from an ill child is not suitable for his or her use. The genetic matter of the disease is encoded in blood cells too. Parents are also the carriers, which make them inapt in using the saved blood. In addition to this, the cord blood stem cells are not sufficient in quantity to transplant in adults or bigger-size person, who weighs more than 100 pounds.
If you are in need of cord blood, the chances of getting a suitable match is more in public cord blood banks than that in private ones. According to the National Marrow Donor Program's Dennis Confer, the success rate of getting a perfect match is only 25 per cent from private banks while that in public banks, it is 75 per cent. Moreover, if it’s an international based bank, then the success rate of getting a suitable match is even higher.
Doctors mostly prefer cord blood from public cord blood banks. This is because such banks are under strict regulation and comply with rigorous standards for cord blood preservation, which is not so with private banks. The former are very particular about hygiene, amount, and the quality of staff whereas the latter are more interested in making profit. In short, the quality of your cord blood can be at risk at private cord blood bank facility.
Public banks give priority to the need of the donors for their cord blood. Moreover, there are dim chances that your cord blood sample is used for the transplantation in someone else. According to an estimate, just 5 per cent of stored cord blood units are used.
It’s more economical to save cord blood in public banks, as they do not charge any money, unlike private cord blood banks that charge around $2,000 for the cord blood collection and registry and an annual fee of $100 for storage.
There’s not much thinking to do. It’s a question of saving a life. You can insure your home, car, and even your life, then why not insure disease treatment for your family?
Are public cord blood banks a better option for cord blood storage? Why is a public cord bank better than a private cord blood bank? Why are people rushing to a private bank for cord blood banking? For answers to these and many more questions related to stem cell cord blood visit, Cord Blood Banking
