National Centre for Disease Control to be Upgraded

A proposal by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry to upgrade the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

The upgradation work would be at an estimated cost of 382.41 crores and is expected to be completed by April 2013.

It envisages improvement of infrastructure, installation of state-of-art equipment, creation of new divisions and upscaling of existing ones.

With the upgraded diagnostic facilities and enhanced public health capabilities, the NCDC will be in a much better position to investigate disease outbreaks and respond adequately to public health emergencies of international concern.

The upgradation of NCDC shall enhance referral diagnostics support services for disease outbreaks investigations, networking of public health laboratories, data management capacity, trained manpower and quality operational research.

The upgraded Institute will also provide public health leadership in disease surveillance, rapid response to epidemics and discovery and characterization of newer pathogens.

Source: ANI