About National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC):
- It is an institute under the Indian Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- The institute was established to function as a national centre of excellence for control of communicable diseases.
- The Director, an officer of the Public Health sub-cadre of Central Health Service, is the administrative and technical head of the Institute.
- Headquarters: New Delhi.
- Besides the headquarters in Delhi, NCDC has 8 branches located at Alwar (Rajasthan), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Kozhikode (Kerala), Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh), Patna (Bihar), Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh), and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
- History:
- NCDC, formerly the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), had its origin as the Central Malaria Bureau, established at Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) in 1909, and following expansion, was renamed in 1927 as the Malaria Survey of India.
- The organization was shifted to Delhi in 1938 and called as the Malaria Institute of India (MII).
- In view of the drastic reduction achieved in the incidence of malaria under National Malaria Eradication Programme (NMEP), the Government of India decided to reorganize and expand the activities of the institute to cover other communicable diseases.
- Thus, in 1963, the erstwhile MII was renamed as the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) to shoulder these additional responsibilities.
- In the year 2009, NICD transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases.
- Functions:
- It functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases.
- In coordination with the State Governments, NCDC has the capacity and capability for disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, and rapid response to contain and combat outbreaks.
- It also deals with Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), an emerging area of concern with far-reaching consequences.
- It also provides referral diagnostic support, capacity building, and technical support to States/UTs in the country.
- The mandate of the Institute broadly covers three areas viz. services, trained health manpower development, and research.
