India is going to screen 70 million people in its fight against sickle cell anaemia

The disease affects the entire life of the patient and the issue has been taken up by the ministry of health and family welfare as well as the ministry of tribal affairs as a “critical issue requiring immediate focus”.

“The health ministry is planning to initiate diagnosis, prevention and management of sickle cell problem in a mission mode covering the entire population from zero (0) to 40 years as a part of National Health Mission (NHM). I seek your full cooperation and support in this National endeavour for eliminating the disease and to promote prevention strategies,” says Roli Singh, mission director, NHM, in a letter sent to states and union territories, accessed by News18.com.

Also, since there was no central mechanism for capturing data on SCD burden in the country, Singh said that the ministry has also developed a sickle cell app and portal for real-time data entry provision, which will be shared with the states and union territories.

The NHM aims to cover 70 million people for screening – to identify people with sickle cell disease – in the next three and a half years up to financial year 2025-26.

Its target is to screen 10 million people in the current financial year and 20 million each in the following financial years.

The focus will be on 17 states with higher prevalence of the disease: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.

The letter sent by Singh to health secretaries, additional chief secretaries, and principal secretaries along with mission directors of all states and union territories has advised that the screening through the point-of-care (POC) test is more suitable in outreach camps, schools, and Anganwadis, among other options.

In order to digitise the entire process, Singh said that “a centralized database will be maintained by all states each screening case shall have ABHA- ID as unique identification. You are requested to utilise the new developments about the technologies available for diagnosis of sickle cell disease and the initiative of developing sickle cell portal."