There’s new hope for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients and for the Indian government’s ambitious plan to eliminate the genetic blood disorder by 2047. As part of the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission (NSCAEM), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is in the final stages of developing a low-cost point-of-care (POC) test kit, expected to be rolled out within six months.
Revolutionary Step in Screening
The new test kits are projected to cost just ₹50 per test—significantly cheaper than the current POC tests priced at ₹350 or more and available only at select facilities. These kits aim to detect whether an individual is a carrier of the sickle cell gene or at risk of developing the disorder.
“These kits will be a game changer,” says Dr. Prabhakar Kedar, Organising Secretary of the ICMR-Centre of Research, Management and Control of Hemoglobinopathies (ICMR-CRMCH), inaugurated in December 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the NSCAEM.
The kits use blood from a simple finger prick. When mixed with a specially developed buffer solution, they can identify haemoglobin variants in just a few minutes. “After testing and evaluating 35 different POC prototypes, the most successful kits have been shortlisted for mass production,” Dr. Kedar added.
SCD – A Tribal Health Crisis
Sickle cell disease, a hereditary blood disorder that affects haemoglobin in red blood cells, is particularly prevalent among India’s tribal communities. Rather than assuming a normal disc shape, red blood cells become crescent or “sickle” shaped, hindering oxygen transport and causing painful symptoms, infections, and complications.
While there’s no permanent cure, treatments such as medication, blood transfusions, and bone marrow transplants help manage the condition. Yet lack of awareness and limited access to testing have long been barriers in rural and tribal regions.
According to government data, around 67.8 million people—roughly 83% of India’s SCD-affected population—live in tribal areas. One in every 70 births in India is impacted by the disease.
Mission Progress and Screening Drive
The NSCAEM, launched in 2023, targets 278 districts across 17 high-burden states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. The mission aims to screen 70 million people by 2025.
As of the last week of July 2025, over 60.3 million people had already been screened under the mission, according to the Health Ministry’s dashboard. Among them:
- 2,15,913 were diagnosed with SCD
- 16,86,628 were found to carry the sickle cell trait
More than half of these cases are concentrated in five states: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.
India Ranks Third Globally in SCD
India ranks third globally in SCD incidence—after Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo—with an estimated 20 million people living with the disorder and 42,000 new cases reported annually.
With the introduction of affordable, quick, and accessible testing kits, the government hopes to increase early detection, raise awareness, and significantly scale up screening efforts in hard-to-reach tribal belts. If successfully implemented, this initiative could mark a historic step toward eliminating sickle cell disease in India by the 100th year of its independence.
Source: Financial Express
 patients and for the Indian government’s ambitious plan to eliminate the genetic blood disorder by 2047. As part of the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission (NSCAEM), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is in the final stages of developing a low-cost point-of-care (POC) test kit, expected to be rolled out within six months.){kind=link}