Category: Health Care

DKMS celebrates 100,000 second chances at life

Posted on by City Today News (City today.media)

Providing hope for blood cancer and blood disorder patients worldwide in need of a lifesaving stem cell transplant

Bangalore, May 10, 2022 – Today, DKMS celebrates a significant milestone of saving 100,000 lives of blood cancer and other blood disorder patients globally by giving them a second chance at life. The organization works in the areas of blood cancer and other blood disorders by raising awareness, registering potential blood stem cell donors, and helping patients in need for blood stem cell transplant get matching donors. DKMS is an international nonprofit organization, headquartered in Tübingen, Germany. It has a global presence with entities in India, US, UK, Chile, Poland, and South Africa.

In India, it operates as DKMS BMST Foundation India, which is a joint venture with BMST (Bangalore Medical Services Trust). DKMS-BMST was officially launched on 28th May 2019 with a mission to give every blood cancer and blood disorder patient in need with a second chance at life. Since its launch, DKMS-BMST has organized over 1300 donor registration events across various organisations such as corporates, educational institutes, hospitals and defence forces to spread awareness about blood stem cell donation and enrol more potential donors. So far, DKMS-BMST has successfully registered over 60,000 potential blood stem cell donors from India and provided 58 patients with a second chance at life. 

Patrick Paul, CEO, DKMS BMST Foundation India, “Every 5 minutes, someone in India is diagnosed with blood cancer or other blood disorders, with over 100,000 people being diagnosed every year is a major health challenge for the country.  At present, India does not have a sufficiently large registry of adult donors. Increasing the number of Indian donors in the database will add to the data pool of HLA diversity thus, it will improve the likelihood of a suitable match. Today, the likelyhood of a patient finding a matchig donor is 1 in a million, but with more awareness and more and more people coming forward to register as potential blood stem cell donors, the odds can be substantially improved and patients will have better chances of finding a matching blood stem cell donor.“

The global milestone 100,000 second chances in life is very significant for DKMS. This is far from being just a number or a benchmark, DKMS takes pride in every single second chance at life. Each one of them represents a personal story of faith and hope, of both young and old, of their families and friends, stories of shattering sadness and fear, and stories of overwhelming joy as well as another 100,000 proud donor stories. 

DKMS support programs for patients from low- and middle-income countries

To improve the situation of patients in low-and middle-income countries, DKMS has also expanded its efforts to increase the access to transplantation. “If we want to prevent families from suffering the loss of a loved one, we need to help, where help is needed! For the second chance at life, we cross borders, collaborate globally and leave no stone unturned to help patients. Every patient with blood cancer or a life-threatening blood disease deserves that chance. Thus, we have established several support programs to increase the access to transplantation for patients living in emerging countries,” highlights Dr. Elke Neujahr, Global CEO, DKMS.

Ethnic diversity saves lives

100,000 second chances at life is also an impressive achievement that only becomes more impressive, when considering that it took DKMS 24 years to reach 50,000 second chance at life in 2015. Within just seven years the organization has now doubled that number. DKMS was only able to accomplish this so quickly because the organization expanded its footprint and is now active in seven countries on five continents. Every day, 21 DKMS donors from Germany, the USA, Poland, the UK, Chile, South Africa, and India, where DKMS operates together with BMST, donate blood stem cells for patients all over the world. Blood stem cell donations from DKMS donors haven given people in 57 countries a second chance at life.

One crucial factor in the success of a blood stem cell transplant is the degree of match between the tissue characteristics of donor and patient. Since tissue characteristics vary according to both genetics and region, the organization is doing everything possible to register as many donors of different ethnicities and nationalities as possible. Having a genetically diverse database of donors is necessary to ensure that all patients have the chance to find their match. “We thus continue to work on our expansion, as well as forming crucial partnerships across the world. We will not stop until every patient, regardless of where they live, is able to find the lifesaver they need,” says Dr. Elke Neujahr.

There are stories of blood cancer survivors like 15-year-old Maheer, from Ahmedabad. Maheer had acute leukemia when he was 6-year-old and his life depended on a stem cell donation. Nine years later he got his stem cells from his lifesaver Dr. Sita from Germany. He describes his transplant: “At that time I was very young, so I didn’t know what was happening, or why. There was so much anxiety, and my parents were so worried.  Everyone was tense, worrying constantly and crying. I didn’t understand the situation at that time, but I knew something was wrong, as my father kept on motivating me. He said there was an issue with my blood but that it would all be sorted.  After the transplant, everyone felt much happier. Not everyone is so fortunate. Many patients and their relatives are waiting in vain for help. My appeal is therefore: Please get registered.”

Stories like Maheers’, along with all the other stories of the 100,000 second chances at life, are a powerful reminder of the impact the organization’s work has on patients, their families and friends.  

“In 1991 we founded DKMS in honor of my mother, who suffered from leukemia, and her legacy which inspires us until today: that every patient in need of a blood stem cell transplant finds a matching donor who can give them a second chance at life. In the past 31 years we have worked tirelessly to make this vision come true. We are proud to announce that this year we have reached an incredible milestone: DKMS donors have provided 100,000 second chances at life to patients all over the world. It is my big dream that every patient has that chance and that other families do not have to feel the devastating pain of losing a loved one,” says Katharina Harf, Chairwoman of the DKMS Foundation Board.

The work of registering donors and facilitating transplants is inherently a team effort and every life saved is due to the collaboration, dedication, and passion of every single individual involved along the way: Every donor who has given a patient a second chance, every one of the 11 million potential donors who are registered with DKMS and provide hope to patients in need, and the countless volunteers who are dedicated to creating a world without blood cancer. “We also honor all patients and their families and friends as well as all physicians and nurses, who take the best possible care of patients and who are such an essential part of this process. Only together we can make a big impact in the lives of patients across the globe,” says Dr. Elke Neujahr.

Register as a lifesaver today

Reaching 100,000 second chances at life is an incredible accomplishment. However, the organization’s work will not be done until every patient in need of a transplant gets that second chance. With that in mind DKMS wants to encourage the public to become part of its lifesaving movement by registering as a potential lifesaver today. “It is my vision for DKMS that we will have 20 million donors registered with us and that we will be active in 20 countries by 2030 to celebrate 200,000 second chance at life,” Neujahr says in conclusion.

Healthy individuals between the age-group of 18-50 can register as a potential lifesaver at: dkms-bmst.org/register 

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Blood stem cell transplantation shows 90% success rate in Thalassemia patients who have HLA matched stem cell donors

Posted on by City Today News (City today.media)
  • Blood stem cell transplantation is the only curative treatment option for thalassemia patients  
  • Patients’ need to find a matching blood stem cell donor for a successful transplant

5th May 2022: India is known as the Thalassemia capital of the world as the country has largest number of children with Thalassemia major. Every year over 10,000 children are born in India with Thalassemia, a congenital blood disorder that causes the body to make less hemoglobin which facilitates red blood cells to carry oxygen. According to World Health Organization, over four million Indians are thalassemia carriers and more than 1,00,000 are patients. Parents, who are usually asymptomatic, are the carriers of this disease and have a 25% chance of passing this disease to their children. In India, due to financial barriers and lack of access to treatment, many children do not survive. 

Patients suffering from Thalassemia are required to undergo lifelong regular blood transfusions to maintain their hemoglobin levels. However, it can be cured with a stem cell transplantation. But only a very small percentage of cases have access to transplantation due to lack of awareness, affordability, and inadequate centers where this treatment is available.

Dr. Sunil Bhat, Director and Clinical Lead, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation, Narayana Health said, “Thalassemia patients are mostly children who go through painful blood transfusion for several years in their life. Blood transfusions have its challenges and risks for the patients. A stem cell transplantation is currently the only curative option available for this condition.  Recent data shows more than 90% success rate of stem cell transplantation in patients who have HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) matched stem cell donors. A successful blood stem cell transplant depends on a perfect HLA tissue match. Patients and donors of Indian origin have unique HLA characteristics that are severely under-represented in the global database, which makes the probability of finding a suitable donor even more difficult. Indian patients mainly require an Indian tissue match. This calls for increased awareness and need to encourage many more people in India to register as a potential blood stem cell donor.”

There are around 270 million Thalassemia patients in the world but awareness about the disease is alarmingly less. Symptoms of Thalassemia major usually start at 4 to 6 months of age and usually present with lethargy, poor feeding, progressive pallor, poor weight gain and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea. On examination you see the babies are pale and have liver and spleen enlargement.

In a blood stem cell transplant, stem cells are collected from blood of the donors and transplanted into the thalassemia patient after their bone marrow has been destroyed. Only 30% patients who need transplants have a fully HLA matched donor in their family, rest of them depend on an unrelated donor.

Patrick Paul, CEO, DKMS BMST Foundation India, says, “It is our mission to support blood cancer, and other blood disorders such as Thalassemia patients in India, for which we have initiated DKMS-BMST Thalassemia programme. Under this programme, DKMS-BMST collaborates with local NGOs and transplantation clinics to organize camps where pediatric thalassemia patients and their siblings travelling from afar places in India to give buccal swab samples for free HLA typing. Samples from the camps are analyzed in the DKMS laboratory based out of Germany and clinical matching reports of the same are provided. In cases where there is no matching sibling for a sick child, we also support unrelated donor searches for patients.” Since the inception of the programme, so far 7162 HLA typings have been facilitated by DKMS-BMST.

Baby Bhushra Naqeeb 11-year-old girl is a thalassemia survivor

Baby Bhushra suffered from paleness and low hemoglobin when she was just 6-months-old. After several tests and evaluation, she was diagnosed as Thalassemia positive. She had to undergo painful blood transfusion for over 10 years until the doctor suggested an allogenic stem cell transplant as her only chance at survival. Hence the patient family decided to go for a stem cell transplant. In February 2021, with the support from DKMS-BMST thalassemia programme, the sample collection was done for the family and she got a perfect match with her sister Soha. She underwent stem cell transplantation in October 2021 under Dr. Sachin Jadhav, HCG group of hospitals. Post the transplant, Bhushra is able to lead a normal life as she also attends regular school.

Mrs. Shobha Tuli, founder of the NGO – Thalassemics India, President-Federation of Indian Thalassemia Associations, says “At present Stem cell Transplant is the only curative treatment available for Thalassemia patients. If not cured on time, such patients are dependent on blood transfusions all throughout their lives along with other expensive treatments & regular investigations. Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna is a unique project initiated by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Govt. of India. Under this scheme, a patient can get financial aid up to Rs. 10 lakhs from Coal India Ltd. DKMS has offered us an opportunity to get free HLA tests done in the country. This enables the patients to check if they have a matched sibling. Thalassemics India is so grateful to DKMS for such an opportunity been given to patients who otherwise couldn’t have afforded the costs of the HLA matching.”

Register as a potential blood stem cell donor:

Healthy individuals between 18-50 years of age can register at: dkms-bmst.org/register

All it takes is five minutes of your time and a simple 3 step process: 

Step 1: Visit the site, fill up an online form and you will receive a DIY swab kit at home. 

Step 2: Once you receive the swab kit, fill out the consent form and take a tissue sample from the inside of your cheeks with 3 cotton swabs provided in the kit. 

Step 3: Send back your swab sample in the pre-paid envelope provided.

DKMS laboratory will then analyze your tissue type and your details will be available in the global search for blood stem cell donors. If you do come up as a suitable donor, DKMS-BMST will get in touch with you straight away. Once you come up as a match, blood stem cells will be obtained from the bloodstream using a procedure called Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection, which is similar to a blood donation wherein only your stem cells are taken. This is a safe, non-surgical outpatient procedure.

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Toddler from Mysuru urgently needs a matching stem cell donor to survive

Posted on by City Today News (City today.media)

* DKMS-BMST has organized a virtual blood stem cell donor registration drive to find a matching donor and save the toddler’s life
* Since, 9 months of age, the child is undergoing painful blood transfusions

Bangalore / April 13, 2022: Yohan, a three-year-old boy from Mysore, suffering from Thalassemia major, urgently needs a blood stem cell transplant from a matching donor to get treated for the blood disorder that is threatening his life.
DKMS BMST Foundation India, a non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders, is coordinating the search to find a matching donor for Yohan, by conducting a virtual drive where volunteers between the age-group of 18-50 can register online to be potential lifesavers.

Yohan’s family has appealed for more to step forward from across the country to register online so that the child can be saved from Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes your body to have less haemoglobin than normal. Link to register: dkms-bmst.org/Yohan

The child was detected with rare blood disorder when he was 9 months old. Since then, he is being administered frequent blood transfusions to prevent anaemia. He is also undergoing chelation therapy to avoid the risk of iron overload and organ damage. Due to the severity of the disorder, doctors have advised an urgent blood stem cell transplant. They fear that there may be more health complications for Yohan, and he may run out of time if a lifesaver is not found.

Says Dr. Sunil Bhat, Director & Clinical Lead, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation, Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre, Narayana Health City, Bengaluru: “Thalassemia’s burden is huge in India, with over 10,000 children being diagnosed each year. One such case is of 3-year-old Yohan from Mysore, who is awaiting a blood stem cell transplant that will save his life. But for that, we need a matching donor. Unfortunately, only 0.04% of the Indian population is registered as potential blood stem cell donors, so it becomes harder for patients like Yohan to find a perfect match. It is crucial for more Indians to register so that more and more patients of blood cancer and other blood disorders can get a second chance at life.”
Yohan’s mother Rashmi says, “Yohan is a cheerful child who is fond of music and loves playing drums and keyboard, but he has been fighting Thalassemia most of his life. He is too young to understand the seriousness of his illness. The only curative treatment for his condition is a stem cell transplant from a matching donor. The search for a perfect match has been a long one for us, and we’ve had no luck so far. Yohan deserves to live a healthy life, just like other kids of his tender age. I, as a desperate mother, appeal to all good-hearted people to come forward to participate in the virtual drive so that my child can urgently get a blood stem cell transplant and potentially a second chance at life.”

Says Patrick Paul, CEO, DKMS BMST Foundation India: “Only 30% of blood disorder patients in need of a stem cell transplant are able to find a related match and about 70% of patients need an unrelated donor. In India, we see almost one lakh new cases of blood disorders every year, contributing to the disease burden consistently. Despite this huge burden, only 0.04% of the Indian population is registered as potential blood stem cell donors which is significantly lower than many other countries. The need of the hour is to address this gap, which can be done if we can increase our donor registration base and more and more people are willing to become donors.”

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Homeopathy effective in management of long COVID,shows patient data at Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic

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NEW DELHI / April 7, 2022: Homeopathic treatment has proven effective in the management of several health disorders seen in patients for many months after recovering from Covid-19 infection (‘Long Covid’), an analysis of patient data from the last two years at Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic in Delhi has shown.

“We are currently treating hundreds of patients suffering from health conditions triggered by Covid such as stroke, serious lung damage, cardiac damage, rhythm disorders, kidney disease, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, mood disorders and Guillain-barre Syndrome. Anecdotal evidence of hundreds of patients seems to indicate that Homeopathy appears to benefit in managing these disorders” said Dr. Kalyan Banerjee, Padma Shri recipient and the founder of Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic, Delhi-NCR’s most renowned homeopathy clinic. “Patients suffering from long COVID symptoms should definitely consider homeopathic treatment either as exclusive or as an add-on to allopathic medicine for optimum outcomes.”
He said that homeopathy was also found to be effective in the prevention of Covid-19 as well as the management of patients who caught the virus. Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic developed a homeopathy prophylaxis protocol for prevention of Covid-19 as soon as the pandemic began. It dispensed 2 lakh courses of this protocol in India alone, helping protect people from the dreaded infection. It is today counted among the world’s most popular homeopathic prophylaxis protocols and the only one to have been validated in an evidence-based manner.

Said Dr. Kalyan Banerjee: “The prophylaxis protocol was developed by us in early days of the pandemic. A huge dataset of 15,000 of our patients from 18 countries was analysed and a protective effect of the protocol was found against Covid-19. Seeing its effectiveness, the protocol was requested by thousands of patients and doctors in several hospitals around the world.”

Doctors at Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic were involved in the management of severe COVID-19 cases, seeing more than 100 Covid patients a day in the peak of the pandemic, including those suffering from multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. More than 50 Covid patients admitted in ICU were managed with homeopathic medicines as an add-on during the Delta wave. Over 30% of these intensive care patients recovered, said Dr. Kalyan Banerjee.

Findings from the ongoing retrospective observational studies conducted by Dr Banerjee’s Clinic have also shown the positive impact of homeopathy interventions on a significant percentage of patients of chronic kidney disease / kidney failure and hypothyroidism. For the purposes of these studies, a catchment period was defined and data of patients with these conditions coming to Dr Kalyan Banerjee’s clinic during that period was extracted.

Said Dr. Kushal Banerjee, a second-generation homeopath at Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic: “The hypothyroidism study analysed the records of 3,500 patients at our Clinic. It was found that by the time of third visit to the clinic, more that 50% of patients of hypothyroidism demonstrated an improvement in their serum thyroid stimulating hormone readings. The chronic kidney disease study analysed the records of 520 patients. It found that by the third visit to the clinic, 58.3% patients demonstrated an improvement in their serum urea readings while 74.2% patients showed improvement in creatinine levels after first and second visits to the Clinic.”

He added: “The early observations are very interesting. In the hypothyroidism study, the data seems to indicate that specific homeopathic medicines given to patients were able to improve the functioning of the thyroid gland, thereby bringing down the thyroid stimulating hormone readings. This has the potential of reducing – or entirely stopping – the dosage of thyroid hormone replacement in patients. More than half of patients of hypothyroidism benefitting from homeopathic medicines is a very significant number, considering that 11% of Indian population suffers from hypothyroidism.”

Said Dr. Kushal Banerjee: “In the chronic kidney disease study, two of the most clinically important readings in patients – serum urea and creatinine – showed vast improvement. No currently available treatment is able to affect a reduction in these parameters. This study may turn out to be of immense benefit to patients. Since these readings are a part of the decision-making process of whether to start dialysis or not, homeopathic treatment may help patients avoid the start of dialysis.”

Doctors at Dr. Kalyan Banerjee’s Clinic see an average of 40 cases of hypothyroidism and 25 cases of chronic kidney disease every day. They practice an evidence-based approach and have arrived at specific medicine and potency combinations for specific diseases using the clinical experience of millions of prescriptions over four decades.

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#BreakTheBias: Overcoming menopause discrimination

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Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day, with the theme #BreakTheBias, we spoke to the Chair of FIGO’s Committee on Well Woman Health and Care. We discussed menopause discrimination and how we can all counter ageism and break the bias that menopausal women experience in various settings.

Menopause is the end of a woman’s menstrual cycles, and marks the moment when she can no longer conceive naturally. The menopause is a natural part of ageing that usually occurs between 45 and 55 years of age, as a woman’s oestrogen levels decline. In spite of this, silence, stigma and shame around women’s health are apparent during menopausal years.

The prevalence of menopause discrimination
Research has shown that silence, shame, discrimination and stigma relating to ageing and the menopause are highly prevalent and can have a huge impact on quality of life.

The FIGO Committee on Well Woman Health and Care is committed to promoting wellness across the life course, and works to break the many biases women face throughout their lives.

According to Dr Hema Divakar, Chair of the Committee on Well Woman Health and Care, discrimination against mature and menopausal women appears to sit quietly – it can go unnoticed and seems widely accepted, manifesting itself in all areas of life.

For instance, instead of seeing workplaces as made up of diverse people of all ages, backgrounds and characteristics, the overriding message for older workers seems to be that mature age is a one-way ticket to certain decline.

There can be mental health impacts that result from being marginalised and/or locked out of paid employment opportunities. Menopausal women are stereotyped as ‘experienced’ but ‘high risk and inefficient’.

– Dr Hema Divakar, Chair of the Committee on Well Woman Health and Care

Dr Divakar highlights that, beyond the workplace, the shame, stigma and lack of understanding that characterises the menopausal transition can also impact intimate and intergenerational relationships.

Hema break the bias
Dr Hema Divakar shows solidarity for the #BreakTheBias campaign
Counteracting ageism and enacting change
FIGO advocates for ensuring wellness and preventive health care beyond a woman’s reproductive age, notably by making recommendations for, and helping with the implementation of, a structured approach to care at all ages.

As part of this, the Committee on aims to contribute to changing the attitudes of health care providers towards mature people across the globe. As explained by Dr Divakar,

In the health industry, some people feel that rather than simply treating issues as health issues, the attitudes of some health professionals may make people feel ‘old’.

It has been suggested that certain symptoms in older patients (such as balance problems, memory loss and depression) can be dismissed from the outset as ‘old age’ instead of being viewed as potentially treatable health conditions. The committee wants to help change this type of attitude.

As well as educating health care workers, it is essential for reliable and accurate education and information about menopause to be accessible. This will contribute to overcoming stigmas, reduce health inequalities and increase awareness. Ultimately, Dr Divakar underlines how raising awareness of menopause and its symptoms and breaking the bias against menopausal women can take many forms:

The bias experienced by menopausal women due to ageism is real. We can point this out to friends, family and colleagues. We can counter it by lobbying members of Parliament. We can build legal cases at the local, state or international levels when discrimination happens. These are all actions that can assist in creating change, and FIGO can amplify these initiatives as the global voice for women’s health.

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