By PHILIP MWAKIO and SANDRA CHAO

When a baby is born, his or her parents are most likely to be overcome with visions of the future — first smiles, steps, birthdays and other life milestones. On that day, thoughts of the child becoming seriously ill probably would be the last thing on their mind.

But some parents do consider the likelihood that a serious illness might someday affect their child — and they make a choice on the day their baby is born that might affect the future health of that child. They bank their newborn’s cord blood.

Now Kenyan parents can also store not only their baby’s umbilical cord but also the vital stem cells from the cord tissue.

This comes after the signing of a major partnership deal between Europe’s Future health and Mombasa based Plasma Diagnostics Ltd.

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Announcing the partnership Future Health head of global marketing Stephen Baines said that there was a growing need around the world for parents to save their children’s umbilical cord instead of seeing it thrown away.

"We are happy to offer this opportunity to make dual collection and storage to Kenyan parents for the first time," he said.

He explained that the process as one in which the stem cells from a baby’s umbilical cord are collected and cryogenically deep-frozen.

" The cells are stored for up to 25 years and can be used when the child, sibling or even close a relative need a stem cell transplant," he says.

Predict future

Plasma Diagnostics Managing Director Nilesh Vaghadia who has been working in the biomedical field for the last 19 years is hopeful that the technology would open doors for Kenyan parents and their ailing children.

"No one can predict the future so having samples like these safely stored away means there is an assurance when your child falls ill," he said.

The stem cells in cord blood are used to treat 85 medical conditions of blood and immune system like leukemia.

The cord tissue contains stem cells that are said to have greater potential to differentiate.

They can form tissues like bone, cartilage, tendon or muscle tissue and even nerve neurons.

The cells also appear to have immunosuppressive properties and combat chronic inflammation and eventually treat conditions such as arthritis.

Adequate information about this technology is available at www.futurehealthbiobank.com or on request by emailing info@plasma-diagnostics.com