Canada Working toward National Cord Blood Bank

Canadian experts are working to secure funding for the construction and maintenance of a multi-million dollar umbilical cord blood bank. The national bank would be used to house donated cord blood that could be used in the treatment of a variety of ailments.

The advocates of the national bank are not only impressed with the medical potential of cord blood. They're also concerned that existing collection strategies aren't providing a sufficiently diverse supply of umbilical cord blood.

The CBC reports:

"Canadian Blood Services plans to ask later this month for $5 million from provincial and territorial governments to start a national public umbilical cord blood bank.

Two dozen experts who met on the issue over the weekend in Ottawa have agreed there are not enough donors to meet the growing demand for regenerative stem cells in Canada.

"There are simply not enough marrow or cord donors in Canada at this time," Dr. Stephen Couban of the Canadian Bone Marrow Transplant Group said after the two-day meeting."