Muscat – The Ministry of Health (MoH), in partnership with the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), has for the first time in Oman started nonsurgical procedures through the Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) device.

ECP is a cutting-edge, nonsurgical procedure to treat graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a complication of bone marrow and stem cell transplants and other autoimmune disorders in children. ECP is also used to treat solid organ transplant rejection.

‘In line with the ‘Partnership in Health’ approach and continuation of the cooperation between the health institutions and hospitals in the sultanate, MoH, in partnership with SQUH, now provides ECP for the first time in Oman,’ stated MoH.

This service will be provided in the Blood Diseases Department at the SQUH. ‘Treatment with ECP is a qualitative leap in transfusion medicine. It is a therapeutic procedure that purifies the blood from the antibodies resulting from the body’s rejection of implanted tissues.’

The ministry further said that till now, patients had to go abroad to receive such a treatment for ‘indefinite and prolonged periods’.

‘The health sector leadership in Oman stressed on the importance of providing the ECP device to reduce the high-cost involved in the treatment.’

The launch ceremony was attended by H E Dr Hilal bin Ali al Sabti, Minister of Health, along with H H Dr Fahad bin al Julanda al Said, Vice-Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University, Dr Abdulaziz bin Mahmood al Mahrazi, SQUH Director General, Dr Zainab bint Nasser al Balushi, SQUH Deputy Director General for Medical Affairs, as well as a number of senior officials from MoH, SQUH, Armed Forces Hospital and Royal Oman Police Hospital.