NCDC alerts against 5 diseases

• The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has alerted states about smaller outbreaks for five diseases—typhoid, malaria, dengue, scrub typhus and hepatitis A.
• These alerts are part of the regular surveillance under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

ABOUT NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL (NCDC)-

• It is an institute under the 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.
• The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), formerly National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), had its origin as the Central Malaria Bureau, established at Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) in 1909.
• NICD was transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases in 2009.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• Functions:
  • It functions as the nodal agency for disease surveillance in the country.
  • 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).
  • It also provides referral diagnostic support to individuals, community, medical colleges etc. along with capacity building and technical support to States/UTs in the country.
  • It also focuses on applied integrated research in various aspects of communicable as well as some aspects of non-communicable diseases.