Agartala, July 14: A two-day virtual workshop on laboratory-supported Diphtheria, Pertussis and Neonatal Tetanus surveillance has commenced in Tripura on Wednesday.

The workshop has been organized for understanding various operational strategies for strengthening the surveillance on diphtheria, pertussis and NT building on the existing acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system with the objective of generating reliable information on such diseases.

This training would be used locally to guide the control measures and strengthen the evolving surveillance system.

The two-day workshop, planned in a hybrid meeting style due to COVID restrictions, was inaugurated by Tripura Mission Director of NHM- Dr Sidharth Shiv Jaiswal,  in presence of SIO Dr Mousumi Sarkar, SSO Dr Deep Kumar Debbarma, SMO- WHO Dr Vinayak,  District CMOs, DIOs, DSOs and their teams.

The program was felicitated by Dr Subrata Baidya, HOD- Dept. of Community Medicine, AGMC;  Dr Sujit Kumar Chakrabarty  i/c HOD -Dept. of Pediatrics, AGMC and Dr Shib Sekhar Datta, Dept. of Community Medicine, TMC.

In this WHO-supported central programme, the team leader of VPD Surveillance- Dr Arun Kumar and Deputy Team leader- Dr Preeti Nigam from Delhi, Dr Puneet Mishra, RTL East WHO-NPSP, Kolkata, and Dr Subhajit Bhattacharjee, SRTL, North-East from Guwahati were present as trainers for the state workshop.