Insurance for children receiving aplastic anemia treatment
Parents who store their newborn babies' umbilical cords are enjoying both medical and financial insurance.
Three children, aged 2, 4, and 11, whose aplastic anemia conditions were determined to be life-threatening, got free insurance coverage, while their parents paid to retain their umbilical cord blood for storage after birth.
Two children are undergoing immunotherapy with their own cord blood, and another received a transplant of half-matched stem cells from his father and his own umbilical cord blood.
On Tuesday, the World Cord Blood Day, representatives from the Shanghai Cord Blood Bank said that all the conditions of the patients were fully under control.
On Tuesday, World Cord Blood Day, parents who stored their children's umbilical cord blood received 500,000 yuan insurance cover.
At a ceremony on Tuesday, the parents' representatives were each given 500,000 yuan (US$70,922) to help them with their children's treatment.
According to Chen Liang, vice director of the cord blood bank, it offers insurance to parents who have kept their children's umbilical cord blood for a period of 20 years. The insurance of 500,000 yuan covers diseases such as leukemia, malignant lymphoma, multiple myeloma and aplastic anemia for 20 years.
With the medical development, the use of cord blood has been broadened. Experts say the booming field of regenerative medicine has enabled a wider use of cord blood.
This year's theme for the World Cord Blood Day is innovations in cellular therapy using cord blood, and a virtual conference will be held to discuss cord blood's potential in treating cancer, HIV, cerebral palsy, autism and more diseases.
