National Sickle Cell Anaemia Mission

Table of Contents

Context: With over a million people affected with sickle cell disease, India bears the world’s second largest burden of this condition. Last year, the Union government launched the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission to eliminate sickle cell disease as a public health problem.

National Sickle Cell Anaemia Mission

Launched: In July 2023
Aim: To eliminate sickle cell disease as a public health problem in India before 2047.
Objectives:
- To improve the quality of care for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients.
- To reduce the prevalence of SCD in India.
- To provide affordable and accessible care to all SCD patients.
- Raise awareness about SCD through screening and other interventions.
Focus Areas:
- The mission focuses on 278 districts in 17 states with a high prevalence of SCD.
- These states include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.

Sickle Cell Disease

It is an inherited blood disorder that causes red blood cells to become abnormally shaped and sickle-like.
The prevalence of Sickle Cell Disease is very high among tribal communities in India.
Symptoms:
- Early stage: Extreme tiredness or fussiness, swollen hands and feet and jaundice
- Later stage: Severe pain, anaemia, organ damage and infections
Inheritance:
- It is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means both parents must carry a variant of the gene for the disorder.
- People who inherit one sickle cell gene and one normal haemoglobin gene are healthy carriers of the sickle cell gene.
Treatment: The only cure for this disease is bone marrow or stem cell transplantation.