International Thalassemia Day is celebrated every year on 8 May. The day serves as a crucial platform to emphasize the importance of disease prevention, raise awareness, sensitize stakeholders, promote early detection, and ensure quality care for those affected by thalassemia.
This year’s theme, “Empowering Lives, Embracing Progress: Equitable and Accessible Thalassemia Treatment for All,” encapsulates the collective mission toward universal access to comprehensive Thalassemia care.
Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that causes a body to have less hemoglobin than normal.
There are almost 1 lakh Thalassemia patients in India, with approximately 10,000 new cases reported each year.
Union Health Secretary advocated for inclusion of compulsory Thalassemia testing in the existing reproductive and child health (RCH) programs under NHM as a means to curtail the prevalence of the disease.
