National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission: It was announced as part of the Union Budget 2023.Vision: Eliminate sickle cell disease (SCD) as a public health problem in India before 2047. The overall aim is to enable access to affordable and quality health care for all SCD patients and to lower the prevalence through awareness, change of practices and screening interventions. The mission will entail awareness creation, universal screening of seven crore people in the 0-40 years age group in affected tribal areas and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments. Initially, the focus shall be on 17 states with higher prevalence of SCD, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Uttarakhand.
Sickle Cell Anaemia: It is an inherited blood disorder. It affects haemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body. People with this disease have atypical haemoglobin molecules called haemoglobin S, which can distort red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent, shape. These sickle cells also become rigid and sticky, which can slow or block blood flow. The cause of Sickle cell disease is a defective gene called a sickle cell gene. A person will be born with sickle cell disease only if two genes are inherited—one from the mother and one from the father.
Early stage: Extreme tiredness or fussiness from anaemia, painfully swollen hands and feet, and jaundice.
Later stage: Severe pain, anaemia, organ damage, and infections.
Treatments: The only cure for this disease is bone marrow or stem cell transplantation. However, some treatments can help relieve symptoms, lessen complications, and prolong life.
CHAMPIONS 2.0 Portal: Champions portal is a single-window grievance redressal portal for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. The CHAMPIONS stands here for the Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing Output and National Strength. Accordingly, the name of the system is CHAMPIONS. It was launched on June 1, 2020, by the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. It is created in a Hub & Spoke Model. The Hub is situated in New Delhi in the Secretary MSME’s office. The spokes will be in the States in various offices and institutions of the Ministry. The revamped portal will now incorporate AI-driven chatbots and will be available in 11 languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, and Kannada. The portal will also have a real-time feedback mechanism for its analysis.
Report Fish Disease App: It will strengthen the farmer-based disease reporting system and for improving the reporting of aquatic animal diseases in the country. The app has been developed by ICAR-NBFGR under National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD). Funded under: Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana by the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India. It will help the farmers in reporting the incidence of diseases in finfish, shrimps, and molluscs on their farms with the field-level officers and fish health experts. This shall help farmers in getting scientific advice for the efficient management of the disease. The data regarding the diseases will be stored on temporal & spatial scales and can be used for mapping the disease cases. It would support farmers in improving farmer-based reporting, getting scientific advice, and reducing losses due to diseases, thereby increasing farmers’ income.
