Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-03-21

Construction of a Bone Marrow Transplant Centre at the Teaching Hospital, Kandy for Patients afflicted with Thalassaemia

- It has been identified that there are over 3500 Thalassaemia Patients and nearly 500,000 Thalassaemia Carriers in Sri Lanka. Many countries around the world have now recognized that Bone Marrow Transplantation and the Cord-Blood stem cell transplantation is the permanent cure for this disease but unfortunately the treatment modality is not available at present, in the government hospitals of Sri Lanka. As such, it has necessitated the establishment of a Unit for Bone Marrow Transplantation for the Thalassaemia patients. It has also been observed that it is appropriate to establish such a Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in the Teaching Hospital, Kandy since a greater number of the Thalassaemia Patients have been found from the districts of Kurunegala, Colombo, Gampaha, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Ampara and Kandy. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne, the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine to handover the construction of the new building complex for the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in the Teaching Hospital, Kandy on design and build basis to the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau and the Central Engineering (Pvt.) Ltd. at a cost of Rs. 856.9 million, was approved by the Cabinet.