Lakshadweep, J&K's Budgam first in India to be declared TB-free

New Delhi: Lakshadweep and Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district are the first in the country to be declared TB-free , Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan Singh said on Wednesday as he called for a "TB Mukt Bharat'.

He also and asked all citizens to rise to the occasion and make India's resolve to end tuberculosis by 2025 into a Jan Andolan.

Vardhan, who inaugurated the World Tuberculosis Day celebrations at Dr Ambedkar International Centre here on Wednesday, said that 2020 has seen some setbacks in the direction of treating tuberculosis but despite the challenges posed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India's TB programme saw over 18.04 lakh TB notifications, according to a health ministry statement.

"Encouragingly, post the lockdown period of April-June, by implementing several innovative strategies, we managed to bring the programme to pre-COVID levels and are back on track to ending TB by 2025, in line with the prime minister's vision.

"When India decides, India does. Indigenously developed cost-effective, point-of-care molecular diagnostic machines (called TrueNAT) were deployed to test for both COVID-19 and TB across the country. Many state/UTs also leveraged the house-to-house COVID-19 screening campaigns and integrated TB as well in the COVID surveillance strategies," Vardhan was quoted as saying in the statement.

Addressing the event, he said India has 30 per cent of the world's TB cases and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi highest priority has been accorded to end tuberculosis by 2025.