BHUBANESWAR: The state government has decided to screen sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia in all districts for early detection and treatment. The screening will be conducted in convergence with the Centre’s sickle cell mission programme to be rolled out in the state soon.
While the sickle cell mission programme by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MOTA) aims at screening the population in the tribal-dominated districts, the state government would extend it to the rest of the districts on its own resources.
A decade ago the state launched a project in 12 western Odisha districts where around two lakh people were screened and provided treatment for SCD. Later, Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore collaborated with the state government for screening of the disease in all districts in three phases.
Though screening of the population in 15 districts was taken up in the first two phases, the rest of the districts could not be screened due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The CMC team also screened more than 80,000 people. The SCD prevalence was around 10 per cent (pc) to 15 pc and that of thalassemia was around six to 10 pc.
As per the renewed mission, school students from Class VIII onwards, pregnant women and their husbands, and people voluntarily opting for tests, will be screened and those detected with the disease would be provided treatment. Simultaneously, awareness campaigns will be intensified in all districts.
The Health and Family Welfare department has constituted state, district and block-level committees for effective monitoring of the screening and dealing with SCD and thalassemia.
Health secretary Shalini Pandit said that institutional arrangements from the state to block level would be put in place for implementation and monitoring of the drive and coordination among the stakeholders.
The state-level committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of the health secretary with the NHM director as co-chairperson and directors of four departments, two experts from medical colleges and three from haemophilia societies as members.
While the district-level committee will be headed by the collector and Lok Sabha MP as a special invitee, BDOs will chair the block-level committees. The Director of blood safety has been nominated as the nodal officer for the national sickle cell mission. As per an estimate, 20 pc children with SCD in the country die before the age of two and 30 pc among the tribals die before reaching adulthood.