Medical College at Parul University now part of the key National Task Force Projects of ICMR on “ Sickle cell Anaemia”

Parul Institute of Medical Science and Research

(PIMSR), Waghodia, Vadodara is now part of one of the key National Task Force

Projects of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Sickle Cell Anaemia.

Thus PIMSR has initiated a research project on

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in Tribal dominated population of Chota Udepur

District, Gujarat under the Principal Investigator Dr. Shaily Surti, faculty in

Department of Community Medicine at Parul Institute of Medical Sciences &

Research.

SCD is hereditarily transmitted disease and may

affect any organ or system of human body. Sickle cell disease (SCD) with an

estimated 5,200 live births each year is a major public health problem in

India. Although SCD has been described in India in numerous ethnic groups, it

is most prevalent among scheduled tribes (5 to 34 %) who have a high prevalence

of socio- economic disadvantage and are frequently medically underserved.

India has also a very huge populations of tribal

community about 18 crore and expected to have 1.80 crore sickle cell trait and

14 lakhs of sickle cell disease. Gujarat a western state of India has 89.12

lakh tribal populations and is expected to have at least 9,00,000 sickle cell

trait and 70,000 SCD patients.

This Project aims to develop an effective

intervention model for the SCD patients in tribal areas for accessing

government health care system and capacity building in terms of knowledge,

skill and training of the healthcare workers at different levels of health

system for prevention and management of SCD.

The project is also being implemented in other

states namely, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh

including Gujarat with the support of ICMR. Parul Institute of Medical Sciences

and Research is the only task force member from Gujarat. The total project

duration is approximately 3 years and the amount of grant sanctioned for the

same will be around 29 lakhs per year. PIMSR has already been entrusted Rs.

27,87,889.00 grant for the successful implementation of the project in first

year.