Gandhinagar, July 1 (IANS) Gujarat has been ranked first in the country in the “States with Most Improvement” category for 2025 under the Centre’s Tuberculosis (TB)-Free India Campaign after recording a significant decline in TB cases and deaths over recent years, state government spokesperson and Minister Jitu Vaghani said following a state Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Speaking after the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Vaghani said the Cabinet reviewed Gujarat’s performance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s TB-Free India Campaign.

Citing the Central government’s latest report, he added that compared with 2015, Gujarat recorded a 34 per cent reduction in the rate of new tuberculosis cases and a 37 per cent decline in the TB mortality rate in 2023.

“In recognition of this outstanding performance, Gujarat has secured the first rank in the country in the ‘States with Most Improvement’ category in 2025,” Vaghani said.

He added that, according to the Centre’s latest report, Gujarat’s estimated incidence of new TB cases during 2024 stood at 186 per one lakh population.

Based on this indicator, the state ranked sixth among the states with the lowest tuberculosis burden in the country and fourth among the large states.

Giving details of the state’s performance during the current year, Vaghani said that between January and May 2026, Gujarat identified 57,334 tuberculosis patients against the Central government’s pro-rata target of 58,333, achieving 98.3 per cent of the target and bringing those patients under treatment.

“Of these, 50,928 patients, or 91 per cent, became disease-free within a short period,” he added.

The Minister also outlined the progress of the Centre’s “TB-Free India Campaign – 100-Day Campaign”, launched on March 24.

Under the initiative, door-to-door tuberculosis surveillance was carried out in 5,012 high-risk villages across Gujarat.

During the campaign, 23.38 lakh people were screened for tuberculosis, 15.04 lakh underwent chest X-ray examinations, 5.05 lakh received confirmatory NAAT tests, and 32,377 new TB patients were diagnosed and started on treatment.

“Under the Ni-Kshay Poshan Yojana, financial assistance amounting to Rs 57.60 crore was provided to 1,05,238 tuberculosis patients during 2025,” Vaghani said.

He added that elected representatives, Panchayati Raj institutions, corporate organisations and voluntary groups have joined the Prime Minister TB-Free India Campaign as Nikshay Mitras.

Gujarat has so far registered 30,992 Nikshay Mitras, who have distributed 5,50,184 nutrition kits to TB patients.

The Minister said that 3,971 gram panchayats in Gujarat were recognised as “TB-Free Panchayats” during 2025, accounting for 27 per cent of all gram panchayats in the state.

–IANS

mys/khz