In a big blessing for blood cancer patients requiring stem cell therapy, the State government has established a Centre for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine in the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). The facility will particularly help those from the lower strata of the society who cannot afford corporate medical care.

The centre was inaugurated on Friday by Health Minister Eatala Rajender in the presence of NIMS Director K. Manohar and Superintendent N. Satyanarayana. The centre will provide a ray of hope to blood cancer patients from poor families, those covered under Aarogyashri scheme, requiring stem cell therapy as they would be treated at the centre free of cost, the Minister saidafter dedicating the stem cell and molecular lab as part of the centre to the people.

With the opening of the stem cell therapy centre, NIMS has grown into one of the major hospitals in the country, Mr Rajender stated samples of blood cancer patients which were sent to Delhi for diagnosis earlier can now be done here itself. The success rate of NIMS in stem cell therapy among kidney and heart transplantation patients was very high, he said, but some services were stopped due to rise in COVID-19 cases. However, all services would be resumed within a week with the COVID spread now under control.

Stating that living with COVID-19 would be a new norm as the society was doing with dengue, viral fever, swine flu and malaria, the Minister said and asserted that as per ICMR statistics, about 40 lakh people in Telangana had developed antibodies to COVID and the fleecing of patients families by corporate hospitals in the name of plasma therapy and some costly injections was wrong.

Mr Rajender admitted that COVID treatment in NIMS had impacted the treatment of other patients, particularly those coming in emergency health conditions, and made it clear that outpatient services would be scaled up soon with OP and Critical Care blocks being set up with an investment of 250 crore. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would lay the foundation stone for the new blocks soon to scale up the outpatient services from 2,500 a day in the past to 5,000 a day.

Excerpt from:
Stem cell therapy for blood cancer patients at NIMS - The Hindu