New branches of the National Centre for Disease Control

• 08 Sep 2022

Why in News?

Recently, the Union Health Minister virtually laid the foundation stone for National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) branches in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh.

What is National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)?

• About:
  • 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.
  • It is under the administrative control of the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India.
• Function: It functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating the 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.
• Services: The Institute provides referral diagnostic services to individuals, communities, medical colleges, research institutions and state health directorates.
• Headquarters: The Institute has its headquarters in Delhi.
• Branches: It has eight branches located at Alwar (Rajasthan), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Kozikode (Kerela), Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh), Patna (Bihar), Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh) and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).

What are the Benefits of having multiple branches of NCDC?

• The regional branches of NCDC will play 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.
• The State branches will coordinate with NCDC (Delhi) with real-time sharing of data and information aided by cutting-edge technology.
  • Further, the NCDC branches would also be crucial in ensuring the timely availability of updated guidelines.
• 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.

UPSC Civil Services Examination Previous Year Question (PYQ)

Prelims

Q. Which of the following are the reasons for the occurrence of multi-drug resistance in microbial pathogens in India? (2019)

1. Genetic predisposition of some people
2. Taking incorrect doses of antibiotics to cure diseases
3. Using antibiotics in livestock farming
4. Multiple chronic diseases in some people

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 and 2
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 3 and 4
(d) 2, 3 and 4

Ans: (b)

Exp:

• Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotic, antiviral and antimalarial) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, and infections persist and may spread to others.
• A genetic predisposition (sometimes also called genetic susceptibility) is an increased likelihood of developing a particular disease based on a person’s genetic makeup. A genetic predisposition results from specific genetic variations that are often inherited from a parent. It has no direct relation to Antimicrobial Resistance. Hence, 1 is not correct.
• AMR occurs naturally over time. In many places, antibiotics are overused and misused in people and animals, and are often given without professional oversight. Examples of misuse include when they are taken by people with viral infections like cold and flu, and when they are given as growth promoters in animals or used to prevent diseases in healthy animals. Hence, 2 and 3 are correct.
• Multiple chronic diseases are two or more chronic diseases that affect a person at the same time. For example, either a person with arthritis and hypertension or a person with heart disease and depression, both have multiple chronic diseases. So it is not necessary that a person with Multiple chronic disease will have antimicrobial resistance, because a chronic disease can be of type where administering antibiotics is not required. Hence, 4 is not correct. Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Source: TH