Burden of anemia in India: Should hematologists and transfusion medicine experts be mere spectators?

Iron deficiency anemia in India has been recognized as a challenge affecting up to 50% of vulnerable groups in India.For the last six decades, several initiatives by the government to supplement cereals with inorganic iron salts at various concentrations, combined with targeted delivery to the vulnerable population, have not been successful.The present introduction of the more intensive and targeted Anemia Mukt Bharat program in 2019 is now in its 7th year.However, in all these years and in the present program too, an important stakeholder, i.e., hematologists and transfusion medicine experts' involvement has been minimal.They can materially improve the outcome of the program if their service is harnessed properly.There are several ways these specialists can add value to this program including research both operational, epidemiologic, and basic. Burden of anemia in IndiaAnemia, as one of the cardinal clinical signs, [1] is taught across the medical colleges of the world and India as one of the cardinal clinical signs, beginning with this sign and other clinical associates, a clinician didactically formulate a short list of anemia in the given patient.A hematologist does exactly so for his individual patient, and a blood banker does some tests to see whether a prospective blood donor's blood carries a minimum amount of hemoglobin to be able to donate blood. [2]emia as a clinical sign is not a disease per se but signifies its association with a multitude of diseases.However, anemia as a disease on its own eight pervasively exists at every strata of Indian society, and the most common cause that affects at least 50% of the anemic population in India is caused by Iron deficiency. [3]e prevalence of this condition in India varies with subsets of Individuals being assessed, i.e., (i) newborns, (ii) infants, (iii) early childhood, (iv) menstruating women during reproductive age, (v) pregnant mothers, and (vi) elderly persons.These six groups in the population are considered vulnerable to anemia. [4]parently, healthy adult males who come as blood donors are not considered to be vulnerable.From 1970 onward, vulnerability of the Indian population to iron deficiency anemia has been recognized, but even after 56 years of its recognition and various ways of iron supplementation, we have failed to make much dent in the prevalence of the condition. [5] is believed by many experts that the tools and methods we use to investigate hemoglobin levels in the population may not be correct, and many of them tend to exaggerate the prevalence of www.jhas-bsh.com