The umbilical cord blood is stem-cell rich blood, stem cells which represent a hope for people who suffer blood illnesses (like leukemia or lymphomas) or those patients that require a stem cell transplant, among others.

The San Juan de Dios Hospital in Costa Rica has now opened and equipped a public stem cell bank with everything necessary, thanks to a donation of $109 thousand from the Japan embassy.

Up until now, those patients that required a stem cell transplant had to start by finding a family member that was compatible and in conditions to donate. This new option brings hope to patients that don’t have a compatible family member, by offering them the possibility of a compatible donor through the stem cell bank.

This program began in the Comprehensive Health Care Center in Puriscal and is now working in Desamparados; slowly it will extend to the rest of the country, allowing the Health Centers to identify possible donors which include healthy pregnant women that after confirming their desire to donate the cord’s blood go through a series of medical tests to discard any genetic illnesses such as diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, among others.
Once it has been confirmed that the donor is eligible, everything is organized to have someone present at the moment of the child’s birth, once the baby is born 100 milliliters of blood are extracted and are transferred to the cord blood bank (BCU) at the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

The cells are then subject to several quality control procedures and therefore have to be in the bank for at least one year before being able to use them. “ We need to confirm that the sample has a good volume, a good number of cells and stem cells. A patient that requires a bone marrow transplant, for example, needs to be able to regenerate the marrow completely, and therefore we need a good number of stem cells”, explained Priscilla Orlich, chief of the Cord Blood Bank.

The BCU is analyzing the requirements for those women that have their child in a private hospital and wish to donate the umbilical cord to the public bank, this is still not possible but hopefully will be in the near future.
Costa Rica also has a private blood bank, ProVida, which keeps the stem cells for those families that have decided to do so, for personal use if needed, in the future.