JK News Today
Jammu, March 24: Dr. Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Secretary Health & Medical Education Department, J&K was felicitated today under TB Mukt Panchayat category on occasion of World TB Day by Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda.
The felicitation was in recognition to the services rendered by Dr. Abid Shah in improving the healthcare in J&K against odds, through intensive awareness among the people, making them aware of living in congested and unhealthy conditions. The medical facilities were extended to the affected population in a people-friendly manner. The patients were treated with extra care and making the population aware that Tuberculosis was not a stigma and the disease was curable.
In Jammu and Kashmir, particularly the Kashmir Valley is prone to the disease because of poverty, malnutrition, congested and unhealthy living conditions. At one point in time the disease had assumed alarming proportions.
As Health and Medical Education Secretary, Dr Rashid Shah, has served as an inspiring figure in improving the overall health system in J&K, and among other aspects his focus was in eradication of the TB, which was posing serious health problems in the population.
His efforts and that of the health department under him resulted in declaration of five out of the 10 districts in the Valley as TB-free. They are Budge, Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian.
Dr. Shah’s efforts were directed at the grassroots level- that is Panchayat level so that the awareness and cure of disease helps the population .It prevented not only cure of the disease but also its spread in the vulnerable areas.
There also has been a steady decline in the TB cases in J&K. While there were 14,644 cases in 2023, these declined to 11,613 in 2024. And the health department is working to eliminate this disease by the end of this year, at least five years ahead of the global goal.
