India’s states will take charge of surveillance for six vaccine-preventable diseases by March 2027, in one of the biggest handoffs in the country’s public health system. Mint reported the plan on October 6.

The six diseases are acute flaccid paralysis, measles, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis and neonatal tetanus. Surveillance has so far been run through the World Health Organization’s National Polio Surveillance Network, with about half the districts already transferred to state control.

Under the plan, states will run surveillance through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. Reporting is going digital through the Vaccine-Preventable Disease Surveillance Information Management System, which is being linked to the Integrated Health Information Platform. The National Centre for Disease Control will provide technical support.

The shift is part of India’s goal of eliminating measles and rubella by 2030, a target WHO certifies. Health experts say the transition will test state capacity, since early outbreak detection depends on consistent reporting from every district.