Staff Reporter
KALPETTA
Wayanad district has bagged the gold medal in the subnational certification of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) for showing a 60% to 80% reduction in tuberculosis (TB) cases in the district.
The award also carries a purse of ₹5 lakh.
The district has been selected for the award on the basis of a seven-year survey that began in 2015, District Medical Officer K. Sakeena said .
The decline in the TB cases compared with 2015 to 2022 was the criteria for the selection of the award. A 15-day survey was conducted from February 19 in 15 villages in the district as a part of the last phase of the survey, Dr. Sakeena said.
As many as 35,000 persons of 10,000 houses were screened during the survey.
Apart from Wayanad, Malappuram district also secured the award, she said.
As per norms, districts that reported a decline of 20% in TB cases could have filed the claim under the ‘Bronze’ category. Those districts with a decline of 40% and 60% could have filed the claim under ‘Silver’ and ‘Gold’ categories respectively.
As many as six districts across the country have also been selected for the award, including Anantnag, Kupwara, and Pulwama in Kashmir; Khargone in Madhya Pradesh, Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, and Purba Mednipur in West Bengal.
