Healthy blood will help in cancer treatment

Hardly anybody knows that even after inspection donated blood carries a risk of contracting hepatitis virus from a donor. This information is not a secret. However, this issue has never been seriously raised in our country. For three years now, the team of the Charity Fund “Paediatricians Against Cancer” has been looking for the solution of the donated blood inspection quality problem. We have been prompted to act this way because of mass hepatitis infection of cancer-stricken children.

The point is that certain hepatitis viruses can not be detected during the donor’s routine examination. Moreover, if such blood is transfused to patients with normal immune resistance, there is no threat to their health. But a child with cancer, due to chemotherapy, almost from the beginning of the treatment becomes vulnerable to all kinds of infections because of extremely low, even zero, immunity.

It becomes clear that donated blood inspected in a usual way carries a threat of hepatitis infection for such children.

This means that the already complicated treatment of cancer is added a new complication – the treatment of hepatitis. A child gets another heavy blow to the body ‑ additional drugs to treat this serious long-lasting disease. What is more, even children having already completed the primary cancer therapy have to undergo hepatitis treatment.

Among all the risks of contracting hepatitis virus via blood, the biggest one is the chronic hippy hepatitis infection.

All of this may be avoided. For this reason, donors must be examined for ALL antibodies to hippy hepatitis, especially M and G antibodies, which are stored in human bodies for life after contacting hippy hepatitis virus.

However, the Kyiv Blood Centre, where donors are examined, does not provide such examinations according to the national regulatory documents.

On a good note, when a donor comes, we should advise him to submit to a blood test at the clinical laboratory, and, of course, pay for that.

Just imagine how many potential donors we are losing?! And also take into account the current promotion of donation and the situation when among 7 donors at least one may be suitable, if it is God's will.

Last July, the Fund “Paediatricians Against Cancer” together with Kyiv City Clinical Cancer Center (KCCCC) and Kyiv Blood Centre decided to sign the cooperation agreement.

The agreement scope is to join efforts to improve the diagnostic and treatment process in the quality control system of blood components to provide medical care for cancer-stricken children.

If we break it down, we have a simple sequence of actions:

We together ensure constant availability of reagents for examination of donors for all types of antibodies to hippy hepatitis, and the Blood Centre undertakes to conduct these examinations, and mark the blood components intended for KCCCC children's unit patients in a special way.

Concurrently, there will be kept records on the findings of donor examinations and the hepatitis list statistics of cancer-stricken children with blood transfused.

Now, Biomedinvest has provided us the calculations with minimum possible reagent units for sale.

In regions, we have many children who already received the primary cancer treatment and ask for help in the treatment of hepatitis. The time limits are not even in months, neither bills are for a few thousand hryvnias. It turns out to be an endless circle – we treat cancer and acquire hepatitis, finish one treatment and begin the other …

The Paediatric Oncologist, Transfusiologist and Paediatric Infectiologist believe that this problem can be solved, but only with your help, dear friends. Everything depends on money. Budget funding is not provided as the share of cancer-stricken patients who need donated blood is very small in contrast to the total number of those in need.

Dear Friends! There is a war in our country. We lose heart and stop believing because of powerlessness, emotional stress and frustrations. Everything is on the people’s shoulders – on our shoulders. Nevertheless, we have no right to give up! Behind our backs stand those who just need us! Children are in no way to blame! Children must live! Moreover, even in this hard time, we must help them, we must develop and create in spite of everything.

We ask you to help in the collection of 19 331 UAH for purchasing donated blood inspection reagents.

This will help to reduce significantly the risk of chronic hippy hepatitis infection of children with cancer.