Public cord blood banking in Malaysia

I was doing quite a number of read-ups regarding cord blood banking when my child was about to be born, and decided that private cord blood banks are more interested in making money by appealing to the parents' misplaced sense of "biological insurance". Almost all mainstream medical professional bodies are against the idea, while promoting that a public cord blood bank would be more beneficial and make more sense. Singapore is the first in this region to have a public cord blood bank, started in 2005, and thus far has proven to be a blessing for children having to undergo stem cell transplant as they would have a higher chance of finding a match in a blood bank consisting mostly of Asian donors. The Malaysian Ministry of Health has voiced concern over the public hype over these private cord blood bank, but what I find surprising is that they did not publicise the fact that a public cord blood bank has clear benefits and should be the way to go.

What is even more surprising, and I kick myself for this, is that there is already a public cord blood bank in Malaysia, run by the National Blood Centre! An NST article on this on 14 Aug, 2006 reported that at the time of print, the cord blood bank has only 1000 units donated by parents delivering at the KL General Hospital maternity ward. Since the benefits and potential of a public cord blood bank are proven (we could look down south across the causeway as the best example), the Ministry of Health, or the National Blood Centre should really ramp up their public awareness program on why parents should seriously consider donating their newborn cord blood to the cord blood bank.

As a start, they should at least get donors from all the general hospitals in the Klang Valley and the main hospitals in all the states. Then through public awareness programs using the media, talk shows, forums, they should encourage private hospitals to get onto the program as well. Afterall, providing an informed choice to parents is the least hospitals could do. Today, too many parents are not aware of what are facts and what are hypes around cord blood. The Ministry of Health, together with the National Blood Centre and the hospitals (public and private) should come together and have a coherent and effective plan to raise awareness and educate Malaysians on this matter, and at the same time build up the cord blood units in the national cord blood bank. It would be a waste and disaster if we have a real gem in the making, but have no will to grow it bigger and make full use of its potential.