NCDC - National Centre For Disease Control

The National Centre for Disease Control – NCDC function as a national centre of excellence for control of communicable diseases. It is an important topic for competitive exams as it has been in the news recently in relation to COVID-19 pandemic. 

NCDC – Why in the news?

The Union Minister of health & family welfare visited NCDC to know the status of COVID-19 in the country.

Aspirants preparing for various competitive or Government exams must keep updated with the ins and outs of NCDC.

Hence the article will discuss the major points of NCDC relevant from an exam point of view. Candidates can check the NCDC official website for further details (https://www.ncdc.gov.in/).

Historical Evolution of NCDC

1. The institute had its origin as the Central Malaria Bureau, established at Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) in 1909.
2. Later it was named as the Malaria Survey of India in 1927.
3. It was shifted to Delhi in 1938 and was called as the Malaria Institute of India (MII).
4. Witnessing the drastic reduction achieved in the incidence of malaria, the Government of India decided to reorganize and expand the activities of the institute to cover other communicable diseases. Thus, on July 30, 1963 MII was renamed as NICD. 
5. NICD was transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases in 2009.

About National Centre For Disease Control

1. NCDC is a premier organisation mandated to collect data about diseases. 
2. It was formerly known as National Institute of Communicable Disease – NICD. 
3. NCDC is the nodal agency in the country for the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
4. It works under the administrative control of 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.
5. The Headquarters of the National Centre for Disease Control is in Delhi. It has 8 out-station branches located at Alwar (Rajasthan), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Kozikode (Kerela), Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh), Patna (Bihar), Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh) and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
6. It is also a national level institute for training specialized manpower for public health, laboratory sciences and entomological services and is involved in various applied research activities.

Functions of NCDC

The National Centre for Disease Control functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases. The scope of functions of NCDC is as follows –

1. The basic function of NCDC is to undertake investigations of disease outbreaks all over the country.
2. NCDC was established to work as a national centre of excellence for control of communicable diseases. The function of the institute also included various areas of training and research using a multidisciplinary integrated approach.
3. The institute is expected to provide expertise to the States and Union Territories (UTs) on rapid health assessment and laboratory-based diagnostic services. It provides referral diagnostic services to individuals, community, medical colleges, research institutions and state health directorates.
4. Surveillance of communicable diseases and outbreak investigation also formed an indispensable part of its activities. It engages in the generation and distribution of information in various areas like Surveillance, Laboratories, Epidemiology, etc.
5. It functions also includes application of integrated research in various aspects of communicable diseases as well as some aspects of non-communicable diseases.

Questions related to National Centre for Disease Control – NCDC

Q1. Which agency is responsible for the surveillance of COVID-19 disease in India?

Ans. The National Centre for Disease Control is responsible for the surveillance of Coronavirus disease in the country.

Q2. Which body administers the working of NCDC?

Ans. NCDC works under the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Q3. Where is the National Centre for Disease Control?

Ans. The National Centre for Disease Control is headquartered in New Delhi.

Q.4 Who are the ministers  responsible for National Centre for Disease Control?

The following ministers are responsible for National Centre for Disease Control:

• Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare
• Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare
• Faggan Singh Kulaste, Union Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare

Q.5 What has been the latest development of National Centre for Disease Control?

By February 2021, the National Centre for Disease Control found a new mutated strain E484Q of SARS-CoV-2 in the state of Maharastra that was previously thought to be coming from South Africa and Brazil.

The information on NCDC is important for UPSC aspirants also because questions on the National Centre for Disease Control can be framed in UPSC Prelims as well as in UPSC Mains GS II.  

Candidates can refer to similar articles given below for comprehensive preparation of exams. 

Aspirants of UPSC exams can check the following links-

1. Topic-wise GS 2 Questions
2. UPSC Calendar 2022

You can also check out the preparation strategies for competitive exams to fine tune your exam prep.