{
  "id": 14900427,
  "title": "2,390 gram panchayats in Tamil Nadu declared tuberculosis-free for 2025",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/2-390-gram-panchayats-in-tamil-nadu-declared-tuberculosis-free-for",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-16T07:41:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu Health",
    "slug": "the-hindu-health",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/2390-gram-panchayats-in-tn-declared-tuberculosis-free-for-2025/article71589213.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Tamil Nadu has declared 2,390 Gram Panchayats free of tuberculosis for 2025, according to Asha Frederick, the State TB Officer. The 'TB Free Panchayat' initiative aims to empower communities to take ownership of TB elimination efforts by supporting prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and patient care at the local level. To verify the TB-free status of these panchayats, they must meet specific criteria, including screening 30 or more presumptive TB cases per 1,000 population, maintaining a TB notification rate of one or fewer per 1,000 population, and achieving a treatment success rate of 90% or higher among drug-sensitive TB patients. The JOSH Teams, a national initiative launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, will further bolster community participation in TB elimination efforts. These block-level teams, led by Class-I Nodal Officers and supported by volunteers and NCC cadets, will raise TB awareness, conduct community outreach, identify and refer TB patients, and provide support to TB patients through the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative and other welfare schemes.",
  "summary": "The ‘TB Free Panchayat’ initiative aims to make TB elimination a community-owned movement at the grassroots level, with panchayats supporting prevention, early identification, diagnosis, treatment, and patient support",
  "key_points": [
    "2,390 Tamil Nadu Gram Panchayats declared TB-free for 2025",
    "TB Free Panchayat initiative empowers community TB elimination",
    "JOSH Teams support community participation in TB elimination"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Hindu - Sci-Tech",
        "title": "2,390 gram panchayats in Tamil Nadu declared tuberculosis-free for 2025",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/2-390-gram-panchayats-in-tamil-nadu-declared-tuberculosis-free-for-14905001",
        "published": "2026-10-16T07:41:54.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}