CHENNAI: A new bone marrow transplant unit was opened at the Institute of Child Health and was inaugurated on Friday. The children with rare diseases will be highly benefitted from the stem cell transplant as the hospital's Centre of Excellence for Rare Diseases gets a lot of patients from several other districts and even neighbouring States.

Health minister Ma Subramanian inaugurated the unit and said that Tamil Nadu is a leading state at the national level with low infant mortality.Tamil Nadu's infant mortality rate has now been reduced to 13 per 1,000 births.

As per a recent announcement by the state health department, the Institute of Child Health, Chennai, Coimbatore Government Medical College and Hospital and Madurai Government Rajaji Medical College and Hospital will soon get upgraded genetic and molecular laboratories at a cost of Rs 8.91 crores.

The laboratory will facilitate the testing of patients for genetic disease, rare diseases and cancer.

Early detection of genetic diseases and inherited rare diseases can lead to timely and appropriate treatment. Molecular Genetic Labs will help to diagnose genetic diseases and other inherited rare diseases.

Various diseases like thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, congenital malformations of thyroid and adrenal glands (CH-CAH), and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) can be diagnosed at an early stage and appropriate treatment can be given for the same. It will also assist in the diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy and other chromosomal genetic diseases.

Talking about the inauguration of the stem cell transplant unit, director of the Institute of Child Health Dr Rema Chandramohan said that the treatment procedures for children requiring bone marrow transplant were earlier being conducted at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital but now, it can be performed at ICH itself.

It will facilitate the services for patients and bring all the treatment facilities under one roof for patients with rare blood disorders.