Gujarat govt may include bone marrow transplant in SHP

Gujarat government is considering to include bone marrow transplant under the its flagship School Health Program (SHP), Gujarat health minister Nitin Patel said in the state assembly on Friday.

The minister also informed the house that as many as 1.5 crore children from the state were covered under the SHP this year. SHP covers all the 26 districts, around 1, 568 villages and eight municipal Corporations of the state where health check ups are conducted for primary school children.

"The state government provides free treatment to all the children suffering from major illness like heart disease, cancer, kidney disease etc," Patel said. "Bone marrow transplant operations are under considerations for inclusion in SHP," the minister added.

"Gujarat Government had organized health checkups for around 1.5 crore children under the School Health Program in this year," Patel told the house. He said that, considering success of the programme last year, this year the state government extend the health check up services for covering newborns up to six year, children studying in class 1 to 12, anganwadi children. Checkups were also conducted for children who don't go to school, he added.

With SHP the government aims to improve the health status of primary, secondary and higher secondary school children, and also the children of anganwadis.