What has the Finance Minister announced with respect to eliminating sickle cell disease? Is the genetic blood disorder more common in tribal communities? Is there a cure?
This 2009 colorized microscope image from the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a sickle cell, left, and normal red blood cells of a patient with sickle cell anemia.
The story so far: Sickle cell anaemia (SCA), a genetic blood disorder, found mention in the Budget this year. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government will work in “mission mode” to eliminate the condition by 2047. India is the second-worst affected country in terms of predicted births with SCA — i.e. chances of being born with the condition.
In 1910, a physician named James Herrick wrote of discovering unusual red blood cells in an anaemic student from Granada, Spain. Unusual, because unlike their usual globular structure with an indented center – like a doughnut with a hole – these blood cells were shaped like a sickle, similar to the letter C. This was the first description of sickle cell anaemia in western medical literature.
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