CORD BLOOD BANKS
A cord blood bank is a place where blood is collected from the placenta and the umbilical cord. Then, it is processed, tested and stored in frozen temperatures after the umbilical cord has been cut from the newborn and it is saved or “banked” to be able to use the stem cells it contains, in case the baby develops a genetic disease or cancer. Blood from each cord is frozen or cryogenically preserved, as an individual cord blood unit that is available to transplant. New parents have the choice of storing it at a private cord blood bank or donating it to a public cord blood bank. Since stored umbilical cord blood is becoming an increasingly useful source of stem cells, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has stated in a new report that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should issue a National Cord Blood Policy Board that would set standards and regulations for umbilical cord blood donation, collection and use. It also asks for the department’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to require proposals from organizations that might serve as a new, national Cord Blood Coordinating Center to conduct the daily operations of cord blood banking and allocation.
It’s also been stated by other experts that by carrying out this report, the persons in charge of the transplants as well as their patients will be sure that safe units are being stored and can be used in an efficient manner. Such report became mandatory by the Congress, which demanded new strategies to inspect how federal money is spent on cord blood donations and distribution.
HHS received specific instructions on the IOM report and how to structure a national program that could be used to spread these funds.
It is well know that United States is the country that has the largest list of Cord Blood Banks. Some of them are located in places such as Portland, Oregon-San Diego, California-St. Paul, Minnesota-Denver, Colorado-Durham, North Carolina (with two in the same city) Orange County, California-Altamonte Springs, Florida-Glenview, Illinois-Detroit, Michigan-Gainesville, Florida-Camden, New Jersey-Seattle, Washington-St. Louis, Missouri-Arcadia, California-Long Beach, California. This state by itself has 9 locations of Cord Blood Banks. Nowadays, all over the world there are Cord Blood Banks, because this way of curing leukemia, cancer and other threatening diseases is becoming very popular and the irony here is that it has always been right there on the palm of our hands, (or better said at the doctors’ hands).