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baby via Shutterstock

93% of Irish mothers want hospitals to store their umbilical cord blood

The blood is rich in stem cells that have been used in the treatment of many different cancers, immune deficiencies and genetic disorders.

A SURVEY HAS found that the majority of Irish mothers would like hospitals to store their umbilical cord blood after their baby is delivered.

Cord blood is stored in many European countries as it’s rich in blood-forming stem cells – however it’s not available in most HSE hospitals.

Because these cells can be reprogrammed, they have been used in the treatment of many different cancers, immune deficiencies and genetic disorders.

The survey of over 250 women was carried out by Medicare Bio Health - the only company licensed by the Irish Medicines Board to carry out cord blood harvesting in Ireland.

It found that 93% of people want Irish hospitals to provide for the collection and storage of cord blood at the time of a baby’s birth as a form of medical insurance.

One woman said: “I trained as a nurse and worked on an oncology paediatric unit so I knew to ask for cord collection. I think parents should be informed and should be given the option.”

These cells are rare in adult humans, the richest source is the umbilical cord or placenta.

Read: New stem cell discovery made – but Ireland “far behind” with legislation>

Read: Stem cells for human use can now be manufactured in Ireland>

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34 Comments
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    Mute Gerard Kennedy
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    Feb 11th 2021, 8:39 AM

    Does this really need to be in the news??

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    Mute Tom Ripley
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    Feb 11th 2021, 9:24 AM

    @Gerard Kennedy: well actually yes….apart from being high profile nice years of best memories on my Instagram. It’s my modern day photo album might not have the originals and I’d be very annoyed if I lost my accout. So good to highlight that it’s possible to fall victim to this.

    162
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    Mute family guy
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    Feb 11th 2021, 2:40 PM

    @Tom Ripley: Get a Onedrive account. Backs up all my photos from my phone to the cloud and when I turn on my Desktop it downloads from cloud onto hard drive. Computer then automatically backs my system up onto a separate hard drive. I’ve technically 4 copies of all my photos and I only have to set it up once.

    15
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    Mute Mattress Dick
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    Feb 11th 2021, 8:28 AM

    My password used to be password1. I didn’t think it was strong enough so I recently changed it to password2. Maybe I should change it again?

    113
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    Mute Shane Cormican
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    Feb 11th 2021, 10:38 AM

    @Mattress Dick: yeah best be safe I suggest you use mine as it’s more secure “P@ssword1”

    34
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    Mute Cosmos20202020
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    Feb 11th 2021, 10:45 AM

    @Shane Cormican: Password2021 would be more up to date

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    Mute Fandandi
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    Feb 11th 2021, 3:42 PM

    @Cosmos20202020: Maybe you should update your username to Cosmos21212121 just incase

    5
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    Mute Gerard Kennedy
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    Feb 11th 2021, 8:38 AM

    Does this really need to make the news headlines???

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    Mute Hans Vos
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    Feb 11th 2021, 9:30 AM

    @Gerard Kennedy: Not if you are the hacker. Yes for everybody else.

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    Mute DJ Dave Wexford #WearAFeckingMask
    Favourite DJ Dave Wexford #WearAFeckingMask
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    Feb 11th 2021, 10:24 AM

    @Gerard Kennedy: You have read the news and commented twice I guess so

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    Mute Claude Saulnier
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    Feb 11th 2021, 6:57 PM

    @Gerard Kennedy: there is a possibility someone used ‘coronavirus’ as a password, so yes.

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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Feb 11th 2021, 8:15 AM

    Everyone should have 2FA enabled as a minimum on any website that supports it

    Would strongly recommend LastPass or 1password to keep every password strong and unique

    50
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    Mute Ronan Fahy
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    Feb 11th 2021, 9:50 AM

    Terminology is important. Having your password guessed because it isnt a good password is not “being hacked”. Hacked means someone bypassed the system security and got in anyway. Someone guessing your password means someone just logged in as you, “legitimately”.

    33
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    Mute NJ
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    Feb 11th 2021, 10:48 AM

    @Ronan Fahy: the term hack actually has the definition of ‘gaining unauthorized access to data or a computer’ so hack is the correct.

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    Mute Alan McArdle
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    Feb 11th 2021, 11:49 AM

    @NJ: but it is authorised if you enter the correct password.

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    Mute Paul Byrne
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    Feb 11th 2021, 12:30 PM

    @Alan McArdle: Access is not authorised because you have a username and password, at best it is confirmed to be the correct login details but there is more to authorisation than just having the correct details to access something. If someone finds a key to my front door they are not authorised to access my house.

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    Mute Ixtrix Net
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    Feb 11th 2021, 9:59 AM

    don’t want to sound harsh, she’s been amazing,,, but if get ‘hacked’ like this, and then start giving advice about security, then well it’s a little too late.
    sidenote – does facebook really care so little about it’s users that someone can’t get an account back when so obviously has been hijacked?

    31
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    Mute Claude Saulnier
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    Feb 11th 2021, 8:31 AM

    ‘Password’ is eight character long, but not safe at all. Many passwords are easy to guess when observing what people post on social media (pets, kids, partners, dob etc), or when a whole platform or service is hacked (many have been in the past, and many will be in the future).
    For those who don’t want to spend much money on a password manager, try ‘keypass’. It has a strong password generator.
    It is key to have a different password for each service used, so when such service is hacked and credentials posted online, hackers don’t access all your accounts. Also make sure your email account is using a strong password too, and two factor authentication can help (with the hope the platform won’t also use it for marketing purposes).

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    Mute Irisheyes
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    Feb 12th 2021, 6:40 AM

    She’s actually getting on my nerves now at this stage. Yes she has had a bad hand dealt to her and she brought awareness to the cervical smear catastrophe. When she began telling people not to call cancer sufferers fighters and telling them they are so strong I lost all respect for her.
    My mam battled ovarian cancer for nearly two years and passed away last June. She was 73 and she FOUGHT it to the last day. She rallied after being told she had weeks to live. We encouraged her to fight not that she needed any encouragement. She had good days and bad days as was expected.
    The doctors wanted to put her in palliative care she said no I’m going to fight this. To take away someone’s right and will to fight you may as well put them down.
    I was appalled she said this.

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