UT gets Bronze; Districts to be felicitated on March 24
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Mar 21: In a feat which will pave a way for the eradication of Tuberculosis in J&K, district Anantnag and Pulwama have been declared as Tuberculosis-free by the Central TB Division, MOHFW under the Sub-National Certification (SNC) for TB elimination of India.
While district Budgam was already declared TB-free in 2021, Kashmir now has the distinction of having three districts which have been declared free from the disease.
State Tuberculosis Officer, Kashmir Dr Adfar Qadri told Excelsior that there are several parameters which are thoroughly checked during the certification which includes the decline in cases and the Number Needed to Test (NNT) apart from others.
“It is rigorous process which is carried out during the certification and there are also several agencies involved which carry out the necessary field survey which then determines the TB score; apart from certification, the work that is put in by the concerned people is enormous, especially the collection of data and other pre-requisites,” she said.
For a TB score of 40-60, the concerned districts get the Silver ranking, for 60-80, Gold and TB-free in case the score is above 80.
The nominations which were filed were for five districts, which include Srinagar, Anantnag, Kupwara, Baramulla and Pulwama. While Srinagar has received the Gold, Pulwama and Anantnag declared TB-free, the rest of the districts have not shown any improvement and they continue to stay at their previous rankings concerning the elimination of TB.
Dr Qadri said that while Srinagar has got gold, J&K as a whole has got the bronze. “Things are in the right direction as Budgam was proclaimed TB-free in 2021, we now have the distinction of having three districts which are free from the disease,” she said.
She further said that last year Kashmir had got 3 Gold and after the nomination was filed for the up-gradation, Pulwama and Anantnag have been declared TB-free.
The STO maintained that TB incidence is declining in Kashmir and they are working towards achieving TB elimination by 2025. “In addition to intensifying our case detection and case screening efforts, we are also trying to bring about change in the districts that are falling behind. By our efforts, we hope to attain TB-free J&K,” she said.
The districts which have achieved the feat will be felicitated on the eve of World TB Day which falls on March 24. The event will be attended by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
Pertinent to mention here, the Sub-National Certification is a project that was started in 2020 to reach the goal of a TB-free India by 2025. It marks the progress of districts, states, and UTs towards TB-free status.
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