President Ram Nath Kovind has asked everyone to work together to achieve a Tuberculosis-free India by 2025.
In his message on the eve of World Tuberculosis Daytoday , Mr Kovind congratulated all the TB champions who have battled the disease and are showing the way for others.
World Tuberculosis Day is observed on 24th March to raise public awareness about Tuberculosis. On this day in the year 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacteria that causes TB. It paved the way for diagnosis and cure of this disease.
The President said the outbreak of COVID and the emergence of new variants of coronavirus had brought unprecedented stress on the country’s health care system. It posed an extraordinary challenge to the healthcare infrastructure. Mr Kovind said combined efforts of Centre and the state governments along with healthcare workers in launching the world’s biggest vaccination drive strengthened the fight against the pandemic.
He was happy to note that National TB Elimination Program was quick to deploy effective mitigation measures and adapted to the changed environment to ensure that the TB patients across the country had access to treatment, despite facing many challenges due to the pandemic.
