RGCIRC holds campaign on World Thalassemia Day

Marking World Thalassemia Day 2026, RGCIRC (Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre) organised an awareness and screening initiative to address the rising burden of thalassemia in the National Capital Region.  Addressing the gathering, Dr Gauri Kapoor, Director — Pediatric Haematology, Oncology & BMT, RGCIRC, highlighted the scale of the challenge and the need for a proactive approach. “Delhi is increasingly being recognised as one of the global hubs of thalassemia due to the high number of cases we see.

This makes awareness and prevention not just important, but urgent. The disease is entirely preventable with the right screening measures, yet many families remain unaware until it is too late,” she said. A key focus area of the event was strengthening awareness around carrier detection through High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) testing, a simple yet effective diagnostic tool. According to experts, when both partners are carriers of thalassemia minor, there is a 25 per cent chance that their child will have thalassemia major.