Context
The Union Health Minister virtually laid the foundation stone for NCDC branches in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
About The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
- It was formerly the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).
- NICD was transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases in 2009.
- It is a national level institute for training specialized manpower for public health, laboratory sciences and entomological services and is involved in various applied research activities.
- The Institute has its headquarters in Delhi.
- Major Functions-
- It functions as a national centre of excellence for the control of communicable diseases.
- NCDC is responsible for undertaking investigations of disease outbreaks all over the country.
- NCDC is also engaged in the generation and dissemination of knowledge in various areas like Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Laboratories etc.
- It provides referral diagnostic services to individuals, communities, medical colleges, research institutions and state health directorates.
- It is also responsible for conducting applied integrated research in various aspects of communicable as well as some aspects of non-communicable diseases.
