The Prime Minister addressed the One World TB Summit at Rudrakash Convention Centre in Varanasi, on March 24.
- He also launched various initiatives including the TB-Mukt Panchayat, the official pan-India rollout of a shorter TB Preventive Treatment (TPT), the Family-centric care model for TB and the release of India’s Annual TB Report 2023.
- This summit was organised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Stop TB Partnership.
- Founded in 2001, the Stop TB Partnership is an organisation hosted by the United Nations that amplifies the voices of the people, communities, and countries affected by TB.
- The Prime Minister unveiled the “Annual India TB Report 2023” which is a compilation of the country’s efforts towards making India TB-free by 2025.
- He launched a Training module on Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis. The module is developed for training the healthcare workers of secondary and tertiary levels of public and private sector in India.
- The Prime Minister also launched the TB-Mukt Panchayat initiative to leverage the support of over 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats to raise awareness about TB, eliminate the stigma attached to the disease and help monitor and improve uptake of services.
- A new Treatment Preventive Therapy was also launched to prevent the development of active TB – thereby stemming the spread of the disease.
- Alongside, a family-centric care model was also announced to ensure the wellbeing of families affected by TB.
- He highlighted that India is the only country in the world to implement a Sub-National Certification (SNC) exercise, a novel scientific method through which districts are verified for their progress of elimination.
- The government had announced a Direct Benefit Transfer scheme for TB patients in 2018 and as a result, approximately Rs 2000 crores have been directly transferred into their bank accounts for their treatment, where more roughly 75 lakh TB patients have benefitted from this.
- In March 2018, during the End TB summit held in New Delhi, the Prime Minister called on India to achieve TB-related SDG targets by 2025, five years ahead of the stipulated time.
