Doctors treating the girl at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital said tests and other preparations were being made so that the blood could be used for a stem cell transplant as early as October.
Thalassemia is a blood disorder that can be inherited from one or both parents. It causes the body to produce abnormally little hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.
Patients suffer from anemia and fatigue. In more severe cases, regular blood transfusions are required. A stem cell transplant offers a cure.
The sample came from the girl’s four-year-old brother and was stored in a blood bank in Guangdong because he was born in the province.
This was the second cord blood shipment from Guangdong to the city, the first being in 2018 to help another young patient with the same disease.
Hospital officials and Hong Kong’s health chief Lo Chung-mau thanked mainland authorities for their support, saying it reflected the close relationship between Hong Kong and Guangdong.
Lo said the office hopes to eliminate the process of submitting an application to mainland authorities. Under current protocols, every cross-border organ transplant case must wait for approval.
Dr. Daniel Cheuk Ka-leung, a consultant physician at the hospital’s Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, said the hospital usually searches for cord blood in a local Hong Kong Red Cross database. They are aiming for cross-border transfer as sibling donors are preferred.
Such life-changing results are also possible with transplants. In December 2022, baby Cleo Lai Tsz-hei became the first patient to receive a heart transplant in Hong Kong using an organ from the mainland.
The action prompted the authorities to set up a cross-border donation and matching mechanism. There is a need to regulate cross-border donations for cases where there are no local matching measures.
The importance of maintaining standards and ensuring safety are understandable reasons not to move too quickly, but recent success stories should encourage authorities on both sides of the border to continue working to reduce red tape as much as possible.
