Innovative transplant on Alex successful

(ANSA) - Rome, January 24 - One month after an operation at Rome's Bambino Gesù Hospital on a 20-month-old child affected by a rare genetic disease, the bone-marrow transplant from his parents using an innovative manipulation of stem cells has been successful and the child is in "good condition", doctors at the Vatican-run pediatric hospital said Thursday.
    Alessandro Maria Montresor, known as Alex, will be leaving the hospital in the next few hours after the transplant treatment was concluded "in a positive way".
    The father's cells, which were manipulated and then infused, "have taken root perfectly", the hospital also said.
    The Italian boy suffering from a grave genetic disorder, travelled to Italy last November from London's Great Ormond Street Hospital to be treated at the Bambino Gesù Hospital to have a bone-marrow transplant from his parents.
    The transplant was carried out on December 20.
    The father's cells, which were manipulated and infused, one month after the transplant "have taken root perfectly, adequately repopulating the hematopoietic and immune system of the patient", the hospital said.
    No complications were registered over the four weeks following the transplant and therefore the transplant can be considered to have concluded successfully, it said.
    The life-saving drug treatment (emapalumab) that was used to keep the disease under control by regulating the child's immune system was suspended last week, doctors said.
    Alex had a rare condition said to affect just 0.002% of children, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, commonly known as Hly.
    Alex was born in London where his Italian parents live and work.