A significant milestone has been achieved by the Union Health Ministry. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed that more than 1 crore people have been screened for Sickle Cell Disease under the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission. The Mission endeavors to screen 7 crore population in 3 years.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood disease which affects the whole life of the affected patient. It is more common in the tribal population of India but occurs in non-tribals too.
National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission:
The Government of India announced a mission to eliminate Sickle Cell Anaemia by 2047 in the budget of 2023-24. This Mission entails awareness creation, universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments.
National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission (NSCEM), launched in July 2023, takes a comprehensive approach towards combating sickle cell disease as the impact of a disease is not felt by the patient alone, but by the whole family. NSCEM combines both screening and awareness strategies to ensure early detection and treatment while promoting education about the disease as people may not be aware that they suffer from this diseases, and may unintentionally transfer it to the next generation, hence the role of screening becomes even more important in this regard. Under the initiative, across 278 districts of India, screenings will be done for people between 0-40 years to stem the further spread of the disease.
The program is being carried out in a mission mode for screening, prevention, and management of sickle cell anemia in all tribal and other high prevalent areas States/UTs of India. The focus is on 278 districts of 17 states with higher prevalence of SCD namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Uttarakhand.
