August 2, 2005

Statewide Public Cord Blood Bank Operational

in San Antonio

The Texas Cord Blood Bank has begun

accepting donations­

 SAN ANTONIO – The Texas Cord Blood Bank (TCBB), a publicly and privately funded program established to create a public supply of umbilical cord blood, announced today that it has begun collection and storage of the life-saving resource.

              TCBB, a division of the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, is the state’s only public bank for umbilical cord blood.  Although usually discarded after the birth of a healthy baby, umbilical cord blood is rich in blood-making cells that can be used, like bone-marrow transplants, to treat a number of potentially fatal diseases.  These include cancers, such as lymphoma and leukemias; disorders of the blood-making system, such as sickle-cell anemia; severe immune-system disorders; and genetic defects affecting the blood-making system.

              TCBB announced today that it has started collecting donations of cord blood at one hospital, and that it will gradually expand collections to other hospitals around the state. But the ramping up will take time, due to strict regulatory requirements that must be followed at each donor site. TCBB’s first collections for banking in the public system began in late June at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, where mothers who have given birth to a healthy, full-term baby at the hospital’s birthing center have the option of donating their babies’ cord blood, extracted from the placenta.  To date there have been 300 units collected for the TCBB.

 As part of the announcement, TCBB named Rachel Beddard, M.D., as medical director of the program. 

              “We began the process of establishing this public resource nearly three years ago, and we are pleased to now announce that we have successfully collected and stored the first donations,” said Dr. Norman D. Kalmin, president and medical director of the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center. “Developing this program to meet the highest quality standards and capture the rich ethnic diversity of Texans took a lot of time and resources, and we have a great deal of work ahead as we roll out throughout Texas.”

While the program begins in San Antonio, Kalmin said he expects a Dallas/Fort Worth-area hospital to begin accepting donations within the coming months, followed by a hospital in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and then maternity hospitals throughout Texas.

With the establishment of the TCBB, Texas joins a nationwide effort to establish a publicly available supply of umbilical cord blood.

Texas is a premier location for a public cord blood bank due to its rich ethnic diversity.   Because genetic makeup affects the compatibility between the blood of donors and recipients, it is important to establish an ethnically diverse supply of cord blood, in order to increase the likelihood of finding a suitable transfusion for all patients in need.

“Six thousand units of cord blood must be collected to make the program self-sustaining,” said Mary Beth Fisk, technical director for the TCBB and vice president for Development and Tissue Services at South Texas Blood & Tissue Center. “The state has provided support through a $1 million start-up grant and a matching grant. We will need community philanthropic support and commitment going forward.  We would like to extend our appreciation to a few of the major donors including Methodist Healthcare Ministries, Baptist Foundation, Zachary Corporation, Kronkosky Foundation, and St. Luke’s Lutheran Health Ministries.”

              There is no risk involved for donors of umbilical cord blood, which has been found to work at least as well as bone marrow from unrelated donors.

 “Entering medical school, I knew cord blood banking would be a growing field in coming years and provide opportunities for fascinating research and treatment of patients,” Beddard said. “And, as a mother, I understand the importance of having this resource available.”

For more information on the Texas Cord Blood Bank, please call (210) 731-5555.