The first transplantation of stem cells from a non-family member donor in Bulgaria was carried out Tuesday night at the National Specialized Hospital for Active Treatment of Hematological Diseases in Sofia.

The stem cells arrived from Frankfurt at the Sofia International Airport on Tuesday night and were taken to the hospital by the director, Georgi Mihaylov, the Bulgarian private TV channel bTV reported.

They were used for the life-saving transplantation of a 28-year-old woman with acute leukemia.

"This is the first time that we used a donor that was not a family member. The donor was not even Bulgarian. We got in touch with the center that controls the voluntary donors in Germany and they found the donor," Mihaylov said.

According to experts, the recovery period from such a transplantation is long.

Nearly 30 Bulgarian patients are waiting for transplantations. For some of them, donors have already been found from Germany, Israel, Cyprus and Italy.

Stem cells are used for transplantation in different diseases – lymphoma, leukemia, bone marrow aplasia, thalassemia, congenital immunodeficiency, some metabolic defects.

At the beginning of March, Bulgaria's Health Ministrer Stefan Konstantinov announced that the Transplantations Fund will be closed and its functions will be taken over by other units in the healthcare.

The decision was made after patient organizations warned that the Director of the fund, Sofia Mutafchiyska, is forcing patients waiting for transplantations abroad to transfer their individual accounts to the fund as a condition to be included in it.

At the same time, it was revealed that the fund had not absorbed the BGN 5 M from last year's budget and the money was returned.

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