Access to Transplantation

DKMS Thalassemia Program India

Free HLA typing for all children below 12 yrs suffering from Beta Thalassemia i.e Transfusion dependent patients in India

The burden of Thalassemia is overwhelming in India, with more than 10,000 thalassemic children born every year. In India, DKMS partners with like-minded NGOs and transplant centers, providing care for Thalassemia patients. These partners organize thalassemia awareness camps.

A DKMS-supported thalassemia awareness camp is a collaborative intervention conducted in partnership with local organizations to:

Raise awareness about Thalassemia and its management
Identify eligible patients, siblings and their parents
Enable access to free HLA typing supported by DKMS

In this process, partners lead end-to-end execution (patient mobilization, venue, permissions, and on-ground coordination and execution of camps), while DKMS supports diagnostic access, technical expertise, and program oversight to all of their partners.

In these local thalassemia camps for pediatric thalassemia patients, the patient families travel from far places, sometimes from very remote corners of India. At these camps, the patients and their parents and siblings provide buccal swab samples for HLA typing to identify whether there is a suitable family donor. Samples from the camps are analyzed in the DKMS laboratory, and clinical matching reports are provided. In case, if there is no match within the family then we also support with free unrelated donor searches.

Who can benefit from this program:

Financially underprivileged thalassemia patients in India who are:

Eligible for a stem cell transplant
Having siblings and/or parents, who would be available as a stem cell donor for their patient in case they are identified as a match

Patients must meet the following criteria to be eligible for HLA typing:

Economic Background: Underprivileged thalassemia patient families with an annual income below ₹8 lakhs
Diagnosis: Transfusion-dependent Thalassemia
Age: 0–12 years
Sex: Applicable to both male and female patients
Beneficiaries: Thalassemia patients, along with their siblings and parents
Place of Residence: Must be residing in India (nationality is not a restriction)

Patients who meet the above eligibility criteria can write to our Thalassemia program managers at thalprogram@dkms-india.org. NGOs and Transplant Centers that are interested in knowing more about this program can also write to thalprogram@dkms-india.org

Impact of DKMS Thalassemia Program (2018 - 2025)

The DKMS Thalassemia program, in collaboration with 18 partner organizations, provided 33,926 free HLA typings, leading to 2,244 perfect family matches. Out of these, 763 patients received an HSCT by the end of 2025.