The UN Interagency Task Force award was announced by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The award recognises achievements during 2019 on the multisectoral action in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, mental health and the wider sustainable development goals related to it.

This is the first time Kerala has been recognised for the annual award. The state is among the seven ministries of health across the world.

Health Minister KK Shailaja congratulated all the health workers in the state and said the award was a recognition of their tireless service. “The state government has arranged facilities from the basic public health centres to hospitals at all levels to treat the lifestyle diseases,” Shailaja said in a statement. “We were able to control the death rate during the Covid-19 period as we were able to focus on the NCDs [non-communicable diseases].”

The Kerala government said the United Nations award was a recognition of the lifestyle disease control mechanism in Kerala, and the treatment and free services received by a large section of the population. “In addition, the state-of-the-art lung disease control program, cancer treatment program and paralysis control program were also considered for the award,” the government added.

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