Source: Australia Allows Umbilical Cord Blood Therapy for Cerebral Palsy, Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood, Jun 2025. Summary written by Future Health GCC.

What happened

In April 2025, a young Australian girl named Zara became the first child in Australia to receive cord blood therapy for cerebral palsy (CP) outside a clinical trial. She was given an infusion of her own umbilical cord blood, stored when she was born, under the care of paediatric neurologist Dr Michael Fahey at Monash Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

How it was allowed

The treatment went ahead through Australia’s Special Access Scheme, a compassionate-access pathway run by the country’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. A doctor applies on behalf of a patient, and each case is decided individually. If it is approved, the child can be treated at a hospital near home, and the cost is usually covered by the national healthcare system.

The Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which coordinated the large 2025 study showing cord blood can improve motor skills in children with CP, has been helping families and doctors use this pathway.

Who can access it

For now, Zara’s is the only case. Treatment is limited to Australian citizens, and families must have stored cord blood themselves, either from the child being treated or from a full brother or sister whose cells are a close enough match. Australia’s public cord blood banks cannot currently be used for this.

What it means for families

It is one of the first examples of a child’s own stored cord blood being used for cerebral palsy through an official route. Cord blood therapy for CP is still not an approved standard treatment, access is decided case by case, and results vary from child to child.

Read the original article on Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood →

This is a summary of published research, written by Future Health GCC. It is not medical advice. Speak to your doctor about any treatment.

Photo: AnikaMeyer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).