National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)

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 Director, an officer of the Public Health sub-cadre of Central Health Service, is the administrative and technical head of the Institute.
• History:
  • The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), formerly National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) had its origin as 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), 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 National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) to shoulder these additional responsibilities.
  • In year 2009,NICD transforms into National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• 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.

 

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Q1) What are communicable diseases?

Communicable diseases are illnesses that spread from one person to another or from an animal to a person, or from a surface or a food. Diseases can be transmitted during air travel through: direct contact with a sick person. respiratory droplet spread from a sick person sneezing or coughing.

Source: Stay alert for typhoid, malaria, states told