(ANSA) - ROME, NOVEMBER 13 - Shy signs of recovery in cord blood collection - stem cells are a consolidated life-saving therapy for the treatment of numerous serious congenital and acquired blood diseases - in the last few months it returns to grow after lockdown. An effect that in the course of 2020 had heavily affected the collection, making it
mark
a -40% compared to the numbers of 2019.
The National Blood Center, on the occasion of the World Cord Blood Day, which occurs on November 15, underlines how 9 Italian cordon banks show a positive trend compared to the same period last year, while the other declarations are substantially stable.
If the harvest numbers started to increase, nonostantel'emergenza linked to the pandemic has not yet ended, but we must consider that the overall data ancoraben remain below the levels of 2019 and the first months of 2020.
An overall decline due in part to Covid but also to the reduction in births which, according to the estimates of the National Institute of Statistics, could amount to below 400 thousand units for the past year. The lack of information regarding the donation of cord blood also adds to the demographic question. Suffice it to say that in 2020 the births that took place in hospitals equipped with a SCO collection center were over 275 thousand, but the units collected were only 5,742.
"Cord blood is a precious resource that with the progress of research is finding an increasing number of clinical applications - underlines Dr. Simonetta Pupella, head of the technical health area of the National Blood Center - For example, the possibility of using the red blood cells of the units is being tested. cordonalin unsuitable for transplantation for blood transfusions of premature babies. Yet there are still too few young couples who decide to make this gesture of great solidarity ".
(HANDLE).