Under the patronage of the Minister of Health Dr Khaled Al-Saeed, the first pediatric stem cell transplant conference in Kuwait (KPSCTC) opened on Wednesday. On behalf of the minister, Secretary-General of the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specializations (KIMS) Dr Fawaz Al-Rifai said there is wide interest on the part of the Ministry of Health in the field of pediatrics, oncology and cell transplantation, stressing that KIMS is working to make Kuwait an internationally-accredited center for stem cell transplants.

Rifai added that the conference is an unprecedented event of its kind after efforts were made over the past years by conducting many stem cell transplants, hoping for more achievements to provide this service to children in need. Dr Sondus Al-Sharidah, Chairperson and Director of Pediatric SCT program in Kuwait, and Head of Pediatric SCT unit in NBK's Specialized Hospital for Children, highlighted the launch of the pediatric transplant and cellular therapy unit and the Kuwaiti experience in this field.

"Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is an advanced therapeutic intervention for malignant and non-malignant conditions, often for critically ill patients. The establishment of an HCT program requires the efforts of experienced and appropriately trained personnel to lead the program," she explained. Sharidah noted that for the newly-started Kuwaiti pediatric program, it is essential to identify minimal requirements for establishing the pediatric HCT unit in order to optimize resource utilization as well as maintain patient safety, adding the children's transplant unit was launched in Oct 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In hematopoietic cell transplantation, patient and disease characteristics including age, comorbidities and disease status must be considered. The dose intensity of the pre-HCT conditioning varies between MAC, RTC, RIC, and NMA treatment models. Also, it may include irradiation, chemotherapy, serotherapy, monoclonal antibodies and targeted therapy, which varies in different malignancies and types of donors," she explained.

Regarding Kuwait's experience, she revealed that 25 pediatric HCTs were performed between October 2020 and June 2022. Sharidah said there will be plans in the future for starting several services including the NBK stem cell process lab, TBI, accreditation, membership with international bodies, cellular therapy, CAR T cell and CAAR T therapy, gene therapy and starting KNSC registry for matched unrelated donor (MUD) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Assistant Undersecretary for Dental Affairs at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mishaal Al-Kandari, said that Kuwait comes second at the level of the Arab Gulf countries in establishing a stem cell transplant program for children since October 2020, reports Al-Rai daily.

Dr. Al-Kandari said in a speech he delivered at the opening of the second Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Conference, which was attended by Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadi on behalf of the Minister of Health and organized by the Pediatric Association, that the (stem cells) program has achieved achievements translated into 33 transplants of stem cells for children from an identical donor.

He expressed his pride in these achievements, in addition to the recent introduction of cellular therapy for cases suffering from cancerous, immunological, and other insured and hereditary blood diseases, all of which were crowned with success.

He noted the great accumulated experience and keeping up with the latest diagnostic and treatment protocols to provide the best services with accurate quality and high accuracy.

He stated that the conference is an opportunity to learn about clinical trials and innovative methods of stem cell transplantation for children with modern strategies and scientific methods that keep pace with the latest global developments that have positive repercussions on the health and recovery of patients.

For her part, the chair of the conference, Dr. Sondos Al-Shuraideh, stressed in her speech the importance of the conference, which lies in standing on the latest global developments related to stem cell transplantation treatments.

Dr. Al-Sharida, who also holds the position of Head of the Department of Hematology, Pediatric Cancer, Stem Cell Transplantation and Head of the Stem Cell Transplantation Unit at the National Bank Hospital, said that the (stem cell) program has achieved 33 operations since its inception more than two years ago, including four cases of autologous transplantation and 29 cases of a complete match donor or a half match for patients suffering from cancerous and non-cancerous diseases such as blood diseases and immunodeficiencies.

She drew attention to cellular therapy and discussed complex cases during the process of stem cell transplantation, potential complications after transplantation, and how to avoid them in innovative and thoughtful scientific ways through the exchange of experiences and scientific research from the various participating countries.

She explained that recently two cases of cellular treatment were conducted and were crowned with success, stressing that this effort did not come from a vacuum, but rather as a result of the concerted efforts of various doctors, the nursing staff, the laboratory department, physiotherapy and medical engineering in the spirit of one team.

She stated that these efforts culminated in obtaining recognition from the International Center for Blood and Marrow Transplantation as key members of this scientific center and the European Commission for Marrow and Blood Transplantation and the expansion of the stem cell transplantation system for children in the country.

Director of the Blood Transfusion Services Department, Dr. Reem Al-Radwan, announced today, Wednesday, the holding of the annual celebration of World Blood Donor Day under the patronage of the Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadhi, and in the presence of a representative of the World Health Organization.

Al-Radwan told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that this celebration comes in honor of the distinguished donors, the distinguished entities in organizing blood donation campaigns, and the entities with social responsibility.

She pointed out that the Department of Blood Transfusion Services at the Ministry of Health collected more than 85,000 blood bags and 7,500 platelet bags last year through donations from citizens and residents of more than 75 nationalities, bringing the percentage of citizens’ donations to 56 percent and the percentage of residents to 44 percent.

She explained that Kuwait participates on June 14 of each year in the World Health Organization’s celebrations of World Blood Donor Day, which is held this year under the slogan “Donate blood and plasma and be generous in sharing life.”

She added that this year's campaign focuses on patients in need of lifelong blood transfusion support, highlighting the importance of the role that every individual can play by donating precious blood or plasma.

She pointed out that the campaign also highlights the importance of donating blood or plasma regularly to ensure a safe and sustainable supply of blood and its derivatives around the world so that all patients in need can obtain timely treatment.

Dr. Al-Radwan pointed out that the Central Blood Bank has received international recognition from the American Blood Banks Organization since 1989 due to achieving the highest quality standards in blood transfusion services. It is also the only Arab bank that has been recognized for applying four international standards, which are standards for reference laboratories, blood transfusion, blood donation, and laboratories. Genetic.