Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai inaugurated the sickle cell and thalassemia awareness and HLA matching camp.
Free checkup of the affected children, treatment will also be completely free
Raipur 7 April 2025: Chief Minister Vishnudev Sai today inaugurated the Sickle Cell, Thalassemia Counseling Awareness and HLA Matching Camp at District Hospital, Jashpur. On this occasion, he met the children suffering from sickle cell and thalassemia and their families and obtained information related to their treatment. Children suffering from sickle cell and thalassemia and their families from not only Jashpur district, but also from neighboring districts Balrampur, Surguja, Surajpur and Gumla district of Jharkhand participated in this special camp. Specialist doctors arrived from Bengaluru, HLA DNA test was done free of cost. In the camp, HLA DNA test and consultation of children up to 12 years of age was done free of cost by Dr. Sunil Bhatt, bone marrow transplant specialist from Narayana Hospital, Bengaluru. This test is necessary to identify a suitable donor for bone marrow transplant. The expensive test done abroad along with complete treatment is now free
In the camp, Mrs. Kajal Suresh Sachdev of Kas Foundation made the children and their families aware about sickle cell and thalassemia. She informed that the Chhattisgarh government is not only providing essential medicines and testing facilities free of cost for the children suffering from these diseases, but the very expensive HLA DNA test done in Germany and complex procedures like bone marrow transplant in major hospitals of the country are also being done completely free of cost. Under the National Sickle Cell and Anemia Eradication Mission, 209 sickle cell and thalassemia patients in the age group of 0-15 have been identified in Jashpur district. Out of these, 110 children were selected for transplant after HLA DNA test, out of which 8 children have successfully undergone free bone marrow transplant so far. It is noteworthy that under the National Sickle Cell and Anemia Eradication Mission, effective work is being done towards the eradication of sickle cell in the district with the joint efforts of the District Administration, Health Department, UNICEF, Sangwari Sanstha and Kas Foundation. On this occasion, Chairman of Chhattisgarh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Rampratap Singh, Municipal Council Vice President Yashpratap Singh Judeo, Mr. Bharat Singh, Divisional Commissioner Mr. Narendra Dugga, IG Ankit Garg, Collector Rohit Vyas, SSP Shashi Mohan Singh and other public representatives were present.
