Every year, traditionally in July, the Association of Cryobanks supports international public initiatives on the cord blood awareness month in Ukraine.

Umbilical cord blood is a valuable medicine given a newborn by the nature itself as a biological health insurance for a long and healthy life. The umbilical cord bloodб collected at birth can even after many decades of storage be successfully used for recovery after illness or injury as well as to save life in the case of cancer.

Using of umbilical cord blood stem cells, scientists have learned to treat over 100 diseases. Every year about 5,000 applications of umbilical cord blood are performed worldwide, and the total number of transplants performed since 1988 exceeds 40,000.

Due to the high medical value of umbilical cord blood in developed countries, the storage of this biomaterial in specialized biobanks is funded by the state. Also, abroad, with the participation of educational and charitable organizations, there are ongoing public campaigns to raise awareness about the value of the umbilical cord blood, aiming to prevent wasting of this valuable medical material.

So, in the USA, July is traditionally considered to be the cord blood awareness month. Throughout the month, educational materials describing the cases of successful cord blood treatment are distributed to the population as well as information on biobanks is provided.

Storage of umbilical cord blood from 2003 is also available in Ukraine. The Association of Cryobanks is making every effort to provide reliable and timely information on licensed umbilical cord blood banks to the future parents in Ukraine and proper instruction of the obstetric brigades on the qualitative collection of perinatal tissues.