Kathmandu, November 7

Civil hospital, a public hospital in Kathmandu Valley, began conducting bone marrow transplants two months ago for Rs 500,000, becoming not only the first public hospital in the country to do so, but also the health facility providing the service at the lowest cost in Asia.

“We carried out our first successful bone marrow transplant two months ago, and the patient has already recovered,” said Chief of Clinical Hematology at Civil Hospital Dr Bishesh Poudyal. “We carried out a second bone marrow transplant yesterday,” he added.

Civil Hospital has been working in co-coordination with the University of Illinois, Hospital and Health Sciences System, Chicago for the last five years to establish a bone marrow transplant unit.

A team of haematology specialists from Chicago has been helping the hospital provide this service.