Ecuador will have an umbilical cord bank

It will be the first bank of umbilical cord blood. The project, which began in January 2012, will be complete in 24 months and will have a building of 500 square meters located in Quito. It also will be able to store up to 10,000 cords.

Diana Almeida, executive director of the National Institute of Donation and Transplantation of Organs, Tissues and Cells (INDOT for its Spanish acronym), argued that this project will establish the first public bank. Not only will serve to Ecuadorian patients, but also for neighboring countries that do not have a public bank, as Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, among others.

Currently only private banks works with its accreditation in process. Its operation is autonomous, that means that when the donors keep the cord, he/she will be able to use it whenever they want.

Umbilical cord cells, also called stem cells are used for bone marrow transplantation, because they are pluripotent. Currently, there is little amount of people who can access this type of treatment.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that when the strings stored in a private bank, the odds of use may vary between 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 250,000. In contrast, in a public bank, the possibilities of using a matched cord reach one in 250.