HYDERABAD: Health Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha said Telangana aims to become the country’s first Thalassemia-free state by 2035, calling for collective action to achieve the goal.

Speaking at the Asian Thalassemia Conclave at Kamala Hospital on Saturday, organised by the Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society, the minister announced the expansion of the state’s healthcare network with three new daycare centres in Asifabad, Mancherial and Karimnagar.

He said Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anaemia and Haemophilia were lifelong conditions affecting not just patients but entire families, and stressed that the state was taking robust steps to control them.

Screening programmes have been successfully implemented in Mahbubnagar and Medchal–Malkajgiri districts, he said, adding that over 11 lakh people have been screened for Sickle Cell disease and are receiving treatment at government hospitals.