Hyderabad: The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), an autonomous institute under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, on Friday has entered into MoU with Tata Trust Foundation (TSF) and National Health Mission (NHM), Jharkhand, to screen the population of Jharkhand for Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA).

According to officials, this effort combines CCMB’s mission toward early diagnosis and making a difference in the lives of SCA families with the TSF’s commitment towards betterment of health of people of Jharkhand. The pilot project is expected to provide the estimates of SCA burden in the State and aid in designing preventive and management strategies for the disease.

Highlighting CSIR – SCAN (A dried blood spot-based PCR test) for screening of Sickle Cell Anaemia, a senior officer, CCMB, said, “Under the leadership of Dr Giriraj Ratan Chandak, a senior scientist and current Sir JC Bose fellow, at the CSIR-CCMB and developed a low-cost, robust, rapid and reliable Dried Blood Spot (DBS) PCR based molecular test. This simple test relies on a drop of blood collected on a specially designed paper followed by a direct PCR without any pre-processing of DBS and is capable of differentiating between normal, carrier and diseases individuals at population level.”

“The collaborative screening efforts will begin across the Kolhan region of Jharkhand comprising East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Seraikela- Kharsawan districts through a combined network of NHM and TSF. This tripartite MoU between CSIR-CCMB, TSF and NHM will enable early detection of sickle cell anaemia, raise awareness about the disease,” he added.