Year End Review | Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

About the Ministry

• The Ministry is charged with health policy in India, which is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.
• Union Minister – Jagat Prakash Nadda.

Ayushman Bharat

• The 4 components of the Ayushman Bharat are:
  1. Ayushman Arogya Mandir
  2. Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY
  3. Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM)
  4. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission-ABDM
• Ayushman Arogya Mandir – To create 1, 50,000 Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) in both urban and rural areas.
• AB-HWCs is now renamed as Ayushman Arogya Mandir, by upgrading the Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and rural and urban Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to bring health care closer to the community.
• These centres aim to provide Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC), by expanding and strengthening the existing Reproductive & Child Health (RCH) and Communicable Diseases services.
• Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) – It is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme in the world.
• It provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
• Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission – It is the largest pan-India scheme for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country.
• It was launched by Prime Minister on 25^th October, 2021, to be implemented during the scheme period from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26.
• The measures under the scheme focus on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary).
• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) – Aims at building a citizen-centric interoperable digital health ecosystem.
• It was launched in September 2021.
• With ABDM, citizens can securely store and access their medical records and share them with healthcare providers after their consent.
• The core components of ABDM’s technological architecture include 4 registries for providing a trustable identity across healthcare stakeholders in the ecosystem. The 4 registries are:
  1. Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) for citizens
  2. Healthcare Professional Registry (HPR)
  3. Health Facility Registry (HFR)
  4. The Drug Registry
• Additionally, 3 gateways facilitate seamless healthcare information exchange ensuring interoperability:
  1. Health Information Consent Manager (HIE-CM)
  2. The National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX)
  3. Unified Health Interface (UHI)

Tuberculosis (TB) Elimination

• India’s dedicated journey towards tuberculosis (TB) elimination, especially India’s National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) has been recognized globally.
• Achievements of the Tuberculosis (TB) elimination are:
• The incidence rate of TB in India has shown a 17.7% decline from 2015 to 2023.
• India’s commitment to end-TB related deaths has been appreciated and the Global TB Report 2024 documents that TB deaths reduced by 21.4% in 2023 from 2015 level.
• Access to TB treatment and coverage in India increased by 32% in last eight years from 53% in 2015 to 85% in 2023.
• TB Mukt Bharat – It is a 100 Days Intensified Campaign for TB elimination on 7^th December 2024.
• The campaign will cover 347 selected high priority districts across 33 States/UTs and will involve a comprehensive strategy to mobilise resources, raise awareness and intensify actions against TB across all prioritized districts.
• Introduction of newer anti-TB drugs – Such as Bedaquiline and Delamanid have also been made available for management of DRTB.
• Shorter, safer oral Bedaquiline containing MDR-TB regimens have been rolled out pan-India across all states and UTs.
• These drugs are given to multi-drug-resistant TB patients with or without resistance to fluoroquinolones.
• Nikshay Poshan Yojana – It aims to provide Rs 500/month as DBT to support the nutrition of TB patients for the entire duration of treatment.
• It was launched in 2018.
• Undernutrition is an important risk factor for TB.
• Ni-kshay Mitra Initiative – To provide additional support to TB patients in order to improve treatment outcomes, augment community involvement and leverage Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
• It was launched by the Honourable President of India on September 9, 2022.

HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome)

• National AIDS and STD Control Programme (NACP) – The Government of India is currently implementing the phase-V of NACP.
• It is a Central Sector Scheme fully funded by the Government of India.
• ISHTH Campaign – It is an integrated campaign for screening STI, HIV, TB and Hepatitis-B&C among inmates of prisons and other closed settings (P&OCS).
• Through ISHTH campaign, around 4.14 lakh inmates were reached out through 2290 P&OCS institutions.
• Sampoorna Suraksha Strategy – It is aimed at reaching out to those not self-identifying as high-risk group (HRG) people, but still at-risk.
• It provides them cyclical, need-based and comprehensive package of supportive services that help them stay negative and stay healthy.
• Intensified IEC campaign – To increase awareness about HIV/AIDS was implemented during August to October 2024 in all States/UT, and reached out to more than 2.2 crore people.
• ‘Ab Nahi Chalega’ IEC campaign – Focused on reducing stigma associated with HIV under the overall umbrella of the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017.
• Index Testing Campaign – Was implemented during April to October 2024, for HIV testing of eligible partners and biological children of HIV-positive individuals.

References

1. Report | Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
2. Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) | Ministry of Health & Family Welfare