Kerala has emerged as the only State to be placed in the Silver category in the Union Health Ministry’s just-concluded Subnational Certification of Efforts Towards Elimination of TB. The award, which carries a cash prize of ₹50 lakh and a citation, will be presented by the Union Health Minister on Thursday, World TB Day.
The State was accorded the honour for reducing the incidence of Tuberculosis by over 40% between 2015 and 2021. Moreover, every district in Kerala, except Kozhikode, has been placed in either Gold, Silver or Bronze category.
Last year, the State was placed in the Bronze category for reducing TB incidence by 37.5% between 2015 and 2020.
The districts of Malappuram and Wayanad were placed in the Gold category for reducing TB incidence by over 60% (2015 being the baseline year). Nine districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad and Kasaragod which recorded a reduced TB incidence of over 40%, were placed in the Silver category. Ernakulam and Kannur were placed in the Bronze category, having reduced TB incidence by over 20% (but less than 40%) between 2015 and 2021.
The subnational certification is a process the Union Health Ministry introduced last year to reward well-performing States/districts when they achieve specific milestones in their journey towards TB elimination.
The nation has set an ambitious goal of achieving ‘End Tuberculosis’ status by reducing the incidence of new TB cases by 80% by 2025, five years ahead of UN Sustainable Development Goals time line.
The assessment was done across the State and the awards declared after a robust epidemiological evaluation that lasted for over a month. The evaluation was conducted by a team of independent verification agencies, including ICMR-NIRT, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine.
In 2017, Kerala had revamped its TB elimination drive as People’s Movement Against TB, with the active involvement of the local community and panchayats. The present achievement is in recognition of the ‘People’s movement against TB’, said State officials.
