India, Dec. 16 -- The National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH) has taken a backstep in Maharashtra with several medical colleges failing to share health data with the state government. The data is crucial to understand changing disease patterns, identify early signs of outbreaks and plan timely public health interventions, said officials on Monday.

Under the NPCCHH, the state public health department has appointed officers and civil surgeons as nodal officers for all districts and identified 17 hospitals (medical colleges and district hospitals) as sentinel medical centres for acute respiratory illnesses surveillance in 15 cities. However, since June 2025, five medical colleges - Pune, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Chandrapur, ...