New Delhi: During the course of his pre budget speech in the Parliament on February 23, 2016, the President of India, Mr Pranab Mukherjee while highlighting the achievements of the government mentioned, “Happy to inform we have successfully eliminated Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus well before global targeted timeline of December 2015.” The President was referring to the final conclusions drawn by the World Health Organization (WHO) in this regard.
It was around the same time last year that the government had received the formal communication from WHO that the total of 32 States/UTs have been validated for Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE). For the remaining four states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Jammu & Kashmir, field visits were conducted by the joint team of WHO and the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the parameters for MNTE validation were found to be satisfactory. The formal communication from WHO later confirmed the complete elimination.
“This is indeed a major achievement as India also hits more vaccine preventable diseases,” tweeted Dr K Vijay Raghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology.
President Mukherjee also pointed towards the government’s strong focus on holistic healthcare, strengthening Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy.
