Hope Floats for Sickle Cell Anaemia Patients

Affordable testing kits on the horizon to help further awareness as well as screening of the genetic blood disorder, especially among rural & tribal populations of the country

- SREYA DEB

HERE'S NEW HOPE for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients and the government's mission to eradicate the genetic blood disorder from the country by 2047 and screen 70 million people by next year. As per a recent development in the Central government's National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission (NSCAEM), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is said to be in the final development stage of a new testing kit, which is set to be rolled out within six months.

What's noteworthy is that these point of care (POC) test kits will be available for as little as ₹50 per test. At present, these POC tests are available only at select facilities and cost at least ₹350.

These testing kits will be used to determine whether a person is a potential carrier of the sickle cell gene, or is at risk of the genetic disorder, explains Dr Prabhakar Kedar, organising secretary of the ICMR-Centre of Research, Management and Control of Hemoglobinopathies (ICMR-CRMCH), which was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi under the NSCAEM in December 2022.

Given that SCD is found mostly among the tribal populations of the country, awareness regarding the government's mission, and the disease itself, is scarce. The government is hopeful that these testing kits, if made widely available, accessible and affordable to the population, will help in furthering awareness as well as screening efforts of the government.

According to Dr Kedar, the tests will be conducted by collecting blood samples obtained from finger pricks. When mixed with a 'buffer solution', they will be able to give results within minutes. "The solution is meant to detect different haemoglobin variants in the sample. After testing and evaluating 35 different POC tests, the success rate of each was estimated before approving them for mass manufacturing," he adds.

High incidence