Mancherial government halts free medicine supply to sickle-cell, thalassaemia children
MANCHERIAL: Parents of children afflicted by thalassaemia or sickle-cell disease say that treatment has become a heavier burden than their heads. The government had issued unique disability identification cards (UDID) for children with these diseases and directed that treatment and medicines must be provided free of cost.
In June this year, on the occasion of World Sickle Cell Day (June 19), the government supplied hydroxyurea tablets and supplements such as Sodamint and Pentids in a single batch. After that supply was stopped.
Simultaneously, necessary blood tests that children with sickle-cell must take regularly such as TTCR (Total T-cell Count?), HIV, ELISA, serum creatinine, kidney function and liver function tests are not available in government hospitals in the district. As a result, parents are forced to resort to private hospitals, where these tests cost more than ₹5,000 per month.
One parent from Ramakrishnapur, 27 year old sickle cell sufferer Bonda Avinash, said: “I was diagnosed at age 4. For the past 23 years I have been getting blood transfusions and taking medicines to keep alive. For thalassaemia patients, the cost of blood transfusion and medicines is from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 every month. That is an unbearable burden for poor people like us.”
Another parent, Kodi Shobharani of Rampur in Jannaram mandal, said her daughter Pallavi was diagnosed with sickle-cell disease at the age of one. “Since then we have tried to protect her life with monthly transfusions. Although the Red Cross blood bank in Mancherial provides free blood, we still spend more than ₹5,000 a month on tests and medicines. As a daily-wage labourer I have to borrow every month to treat my daughter. Recently she developed a heart swelling and one leg bent, she cannot walk. Doctors say operation will cost ₹20 lakh. The government must step in to save our child.”
Parents pointed out that just as government hospitals supply BP, diabetes and fever medicines, the same supply should cover thalassaemia and sickle-cell medicines. Even though they have submitted repeated requests to officials, no result has been forthcoming.
In the entire Adilabad division there are about 2,000 children suffering from these diseases and more than 10,000 across the state.
