Upcoming NCDC branches in India
The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is 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. Entomological expertise is made available by a separate division dealing with entomology and vector management. NCDC also deals with Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), an emerging area of concern with far-reaching consequences. NCDC also provides referral diagnostic support, capacity building and technical support to States/UTs in the country.
With headquarters at Delhi, NCDC has eight branches in Karnataka (Bengaluru), Tamil-Nadu (Coonoor), Andhra Pradesh (Rajahmundry), Kerala (Kozhikode), Uttar-Pradesh (Varanasi), Bihar (Patna), Chhattisgarh (Jagdalpur) and Rajasthan (Alwar). The branches were set-up, over the years, to deal with specific diseases relevant to the concerned States. The amenities and infrastructure in the said Branches is very basic and minimal.
Under 12th five Year Plan, a decision was taken to expand and fortify the presence of NCDC by opening NCDC branches in all the States of the country. In this context, a scheme – Establishment of 30 branches (including 8 existing branches) of the National Centre for Disease Control in all States and one UT (Andaman & Nicobar Island) was approved and Standing Finance Committee (SFC) was authorised on 24.04.2015. Later, an Umbrella Scheme has been introduced from 2017-18 in which “Establishment and Strengthening of NCDC Branches” was one of the component. The scheme is continuing after approval of SFC 2021-26 from Secretary, MoHFW.