What is sickle cell anemia disease, about which students will study? 20 years of hard work of this doctor paid off

Sickle Cell Anemia Disease: College students will now have to read about the dangerous disease sickle cell anemia. To include it in the syllabus, a doctor had written more than 1000 letters.

Sickle Cell Anemia: Dr. Ramesh Katre, working in the tribal-dominated Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, wrote more than 1000 letters and emails to officials of 15 states for more than two decades. The purpose of writing these letters was to include a disease called Sickle Cell Anemia in the curriculum of schools and colleges, so that awareness about this disease could be increased among the students. Dr. Ramesh has also got the fruits of his hard work for 20 years.

In fact, the result of the letters written by Dr. Ramesh was such that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to request all the Higher Educational Institutions of the country to include a chapter on this disease in the syllabus. On March 28, UGC Secretary Manish Joshi wrote to all universities and colleges to include a chapter on sickle cell anemia, its causes, methods of treatment, pattern of disease, method of testing and ways to avoid it.

What is sickle cell anemia?

Sickle cell anemia is recognized as a dangerous disease. This is a disease related to anemia. Due to this disease, red blood cells become round or start breaking. This happens due to lack of oxygen. Red blood cells carry oxygen to other parts of the body. Red blood cells are usually round and flexible, so that they can easily travel through the veins. Due to this disease, there is blockage in the veins. Due to the death of red blood cells, there is also a lack of blood in the body.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that Africa has the highest number of sickle cell anemia cases. According to the central government, India has the second highest number of sickle cell anemia cases in the world. Every year 30,000 to 40,000 children are born with this disease. This disease is most commonly found in the tribal population of India. Maximum cases of this disease are seen in 15 states. Maharashtra is at the forefront of this list.

What did Dr. Ramesh say?

Dr. Ramesh said that I wrote 1000 letters and emails to the officials of 15 states. Requested them to include this disease in the curriculum. He told that he has treated 20,000 patients suffering from this disease so far in two decades in Gadchiroli district. Dr. Ramesh says that many patients die simply because they do not get treatment.

He said that treatment will not be available at the initial level, due to lack of regular check and medical care, sickle cell anemia becomes incurable. This disease also becomes fatal, especially for poor, rural, remote and tribal people. This is because they lack good medical facilities.