Andhra Pradesh has won three national awards for its initiatives and progress towards TB-free (Tuberculosis-free) India.
The awards were received by Health and Family Welfare Commissioner J. Nivas and other officials concerned at the One World TB Summit organised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) at Varanasi on the occasion of World TB Day on Friday. The summit was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to a release by the Health Department, following a Sub National Certification (SNC) assessment carried out throughout the country to assess the efforts in achieving TB-free status, three districts of Andhra Pradesh won gold and silver medals. Eluru district was awarded the gold medal while Visakhapatnam and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema districts were awarded silver medals. Also, Srikakulam, Anakapalli, Kakinada, West Godavari and Guntur won bronze awards.
These districts were awarded for best performance in reducing the incidence of TB between 2015 and 2022.
The SNC assessment was carried out in different methods under the supervision of the Central Tuberculosis Division and the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai. As part of the assessment, a community survey was carried out in December 2022 and January 2023 during which a total of 6,30,474 individuals were screened from 2,49,208 households across the State, the release said.
The release stated that 92,177 fresh TB cases were diagnosed in 2022. A total of 337 districts were assessed and 18 bagged gold, 28 got silver and 65 received bronze awards.
