GUWAHATI: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, awarded the Health and Family Welfare Department, Assam, the national award for a decrease in TB cases in two districts under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), providing a significant boost to the state's commitment to eliminating tuberculosis (TB).
The honour was presented at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-sponsored One Global TB Conference in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
At the Sub National Certification for the year 2023, Bongaigaon District received Silver for a 40% reduction in TB cases and Kokrajhar District received Bronze for a 20% reduction in TB cases.
The event was attended by a number of people, including the Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Member (Health) of NITI Aayog Dr. V K Paul, and Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak.
Gulab Chand Kataria, the governor of Assam, attended the event virtually from Raj Bhavan, along with Keshab Mahanta, the minister of health for Assam, Avinash Joshi, the principal secretary of health, Bornali Sharma, the secretary of health, and Dr. Neel Madhab Das, the director of health services for Assam.
At the historic ceremony in Varanasi, Dr. M. S. Lakshmi Priya, Mission Director, National Health Mission Assam, Dr. Avijit Basu, Joint Director (TB), Cum State TB Officer Assam, and other state WHO delegates were present.
According to reports, as part of the Nikshay Mitra Campaign under the auspices of the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan, the former governor of Assam, Prof. Jagadish Mukhi, adopted 10 TB patients, the state's chief minister, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, adopted five, and the health minister, Keshab Mahanta, adopted four (PMTBMBA).
The Assam state health department has been devotedly battling tuberculosis in the state. It is noteworthy that the state diagnosed 47,926 TB patients in total in 2022 with an 88.8% success rate, according to the officials.
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