Bone-marrow transplant by next June

An American hospital will help Bangladesh to establish the country’s first-ever bone marrow transplantation unit under an agreement signed here on Sunday.

The unit will be installed by Massachusetts General Hospital-MGH of USA at Dhaka Medical College Hospital by June next year.

The health and family welfare ministry and the US hospital signed the memorandum of understanding, watched by Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr AFM Ruhal Haque.

Massachusetts General Hospital-MGH) will provide technical assistance and train Bangladeshi doctors on bone marrow transplantation, Ruhal Haque told journalists at the MoU signing ceremony.

He said high-tech equipment worth Tk 15 to 20 crore will be set up at the DMCH unit to make the facility operational.

Such units will also gradually be set up in other hospitals of the country, he said.

In absence of the facility in Bangladesh many patients requiring bone marrow transplantation go abroad for the costly treatment.

The planned unit, Rahul Haque said, will make this high-tech treatment available at home at an affordable cost, the minister said.

Additional Director General of DHGS AFM Saiful Islam and Director- General of Massachusetts General Hospital-MGH signed the MoU.

State Minister for Health, Family Welfare Dr Mojibur Rahman Fakir and senior secretary Humayun Kabir were also present.