Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday inaugurated a Metropolitan Surveillance Unit in Shimla and said that it will serve as an early warning system for health disasters in Shimla.
The specialised urban health system, established at a cost of Rs 1.56 crore and equipped with modern technologies, will become active in the event of a health disaster or disease outbreak, analyse the situation and alert hospitals, according to an official statement.
This type of modern surveillance unit has been established in only 20 cities in India, and Himachal is the first and only hill state to have the technology, it said.
The Metropolitan Surveillance Unit was established through a tripartite agreement between the National Health Mission, the National Centre for Disease Control and the Shimla Municipal Corporation, the chief minister said in the statement.
This initiative marks a historic step towards making Shimla a safe, healthy and responsive city, he added.
He said the surveillance unit’s functions include generating and verifying alerts on health-related events, and supporting the collection and analysis of samples for water, food, vector-borne and zoonotic diseases.
It will also facilitate planning and coordination of response by stakeholders such as civic bodies and health, food safety and animal husbandry departments, and build the city’s capacity to respond to disease outbreaks.
