The Dubai Umbilical Cord Blood and Research Center of the Dubai Health Authority launched an electronic registration service to request stem cell storage at the center for a period of 30 years, as part of its continuous efforts to facilitate pregnant mothers to benefit from the services of the center in all circumstances, especially in this exceptional circumstance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Fatima Al Hashimi, head of the donor recruitment unit and the first clinical researcher at the Dubai Umbilical Cord Blood and Research Center, stressed the importance of this service, which will effectively contribute to saving time effort on mothers, and avoiding the difficulty of movement to reach the center to benefit from the service, in addition to strengthening preventive measures for pregnant women in Under the current circumstances, especially since the pregnant category is among the groups most vulnerable to infection.
Dr. Al Hashemi explained the mechanism of utilizing the new service, which is that mothers who wish to store stem cells by sending an email to the Dubai Cord Blood Center as a request for registration in the service with writing the different contact numbers, where the relevant team at the center provides them with all the documents required to register the official data and re-send it to The center via e-mail, DCRC@dha.gov.ae, to review and verify the data, and to ensure that the required conditions are met and the official registration at the center for the storage of stem cells for a period of (30) years.
Dr. Al-Hashemi pointed to the continuous coordination between the center and the mothers after the official registration in the service, where the necessary tools for collecting umbilical cord blood samples are delivered to the mother to take with her during birth in private hospitals for use by medical and nursing staff, noting the availability of this equipment in the governmental hospitals affiliated For the body (Dubai nice hospital).
She reviewed the ongoing efforts made by the center to introduce mothers to this service through medical and nursing cadres working in hospitals and primary health care centers during maternal medical reviews during pregnancy.
Remote training programs
Dr. Al-Hashemi pointed to the continuous training courses and programs implemented by the center remotely through smart means and techniques for medical and nursing cadres in the various hospitals of the authority on the best ways to collect cord blood samples and obtain successful and storable stem cells when separated from the cord blood, Where hands-on training is done on a doll containing the umbilical cord and the placenta through direct interaction with the medical and nursing staff.
Also, at the end of the course, a short test is held over the phone with the participants in the session to ensure their readiness to carry out the proper sampling according to the criteria and conditions for storing stem cells extracted from the cord blood, including: no blood clotting, no contagious disease in the donor mother, or the presence of Deformation in the child, and the sample is not anonymous and free from the information of the donor mother, and the amount of blood extracted is not less than the required amount, and the stem cells are not few in number and vital.
She said that the center has so far been able to train (37) medical and nursing cadres at Hatta Hospital remotely and receive successful samples that have been stored in the center according to the best standards, requirements and protocols in force globally, and with a high degree of specificity and accuracy to be used later in the treatment of various blood diseases when Need it.
Dr. Al-Hashemi explained that the center has so far contributed, in cooperation with the international centers, in treating (20) disease conditions that were suffering from thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, leukemia, and Vankoni anemia after providing these centers with stem cells extracted from cord blood stored in the center, noting the success of the center Since its inception in 2006 AD, and so far in storage of more than (7000) samples of stem cells extracted from cord blood for mothers of different nationalities.
She pointed to the advanced and specialized laboratories available in the center, in which the process of preparation and extraction of stem cells and verification of the identification card of the blood unit and the samples of the donated mother are carried out, under sterile conditions, then storing the blood units and freezing them gradually in preparation for their preservation in nitrogenous incubators designated for this purpose in preparation for their use in treating diseases Different blood.