“Disease surveillance plays a crucial part in disease prevention, control and management. The regional branches of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will pay a pivotal part and will provide a boost to public health infrastructure with prompt surveillance, rapid detection and monitoring of diseases thereby enabling early interventions,” said Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, on September 6, after he virtually laid the foundation stone for NCDC branches in six States (Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh).
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The Minister said that NCDC branches in the States will support the State governments in timely disease surveillance and monitoring. “These will enable early warning leading to timely intervention based on evidence gathered from the field,” he pointed out.
“The State branches will coordinate with NCDC, Delhi with real time sharing of data and information aided by cutting edge technology. NCDC branches would also be crucial in ensuring timely availability of updated guidelines so that accurate scientifically backed information can be disseminated easily,’’ said the Minister.
Currently, NCDC has eight branches in States with focus on one or few diseases, these will be repurposed and new branches are being added with the mandate for integrated disease surveillance activities, dealing with Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), multi-sectoral and entomological investigations etc.