Health Minister lays foundation stone for NCDC Regional Branch, six State Branches & two BSL-3 Laboratories

New Delhi: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya laid the foundation stone for NCDC Regional Branch in Assam, State branches in 6 States (Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha, West Bengal and Mizoram) and BSL-3 labs in 2 States (Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand) virtually at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The Minister also inaugurated a temporary NCDC Regional branch in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. These new NCDC branches and BSL-3 labs will strengthen the country’s capacity for Pandemic preparedness and disease surveillance with One Health approach. He also dedicated Auditorium and Library block as a part of Upgraded NCDC, Delhi to the nation and released several technical documents.

Prof. S P Singh Baghel, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare; Keshab Mahanta, Health Minister, Assam; Anil Vij, Health Minister, Haryana and Members of Parliament from six states – Aparajita Sarangi (Odisha), Kartikeya Sharma (Haryana), D V Sadananda Gowda (Karnataka), Suresh Kumar Kashyap (Himachal Pradesh), Queen Oja (Assam) and Dr. Nishikant Dubey (Jharkhand) attended the event. Hemanga Thakuria, Member of Legislative Assembly, Assam also joined the occasion.

Expressing his elation at the event, Dr. Mandaviya said that these regional branches of NCDC will help in combating diseases with regional variations like CCHF, KFD, Scrub typhus. Further, State branches of NCDC and BSL-3 laboratory once functional will augment the capacity of region/state for preparedness and response especially for outbreak prone diseases by high-risk pathogens. “The health infrastructure facilities inaugurated today, or for those whose foundation stone has been laid, will substantially boost our regional, district and block level healthcare infrastructure and will further augment the surveillance, diagnostics and public health preparedness and response capacity for any impending outbreak or pandemic in future”, he said.

The health minister said that “pandemic preparedness and disease surveillance anchored in strong health systems that reach all people, especially the most vulnerable, are crucial to ensure better protection from major disease outbreaks.” Emphasizing that these institutions under NCDC will be in the interest of the local populace, he stated that “the Government of India is committed towards strengthening the surveillance of infectious diseases and outbreak response through strengthening of NCDC”.

Applauding NCDC for its contributions, Dr Mandaviya said, “India has performed better than many other countries in fighting the COVID pandemic. NCDC has been at the forefront in instituting containment measures including community surveillance, contact tracing and response in coordination with the State and local governments.” He further added NCDC is the nodal agency for Public Health Surveillance and Response, epidemiological support including outbreak investigations in addition to diagnostic capacities for bacterial, viral, zoonotic infections and parasitic diseases.

The Minister said, “Healthcare professionals and practitioners are like defence forces; they can never be in a complacent mood. They have to always be on the alert. There can be no lean period for our healthcare army, we have to strengthen and sharpen our skills for timely surveillance and disease detection.” “As Hon. Prime Minister said in his last Mann ki Baat, a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. We need to enhance public awareness towards personal health to ward off diseases, particularly lifestyle diseases, also known as non-communicable diseases”, he further stated.

Dr Mandaviya informed that a forward-looking strategy has been envisaged for the NCDC’s evolution through which it is planned to establish 30 NCDC state branches, 5 NCDC regional branches and 10 BSL-3 laboratories in phase-wise manner for decentralizing the presence of NCDC. He further said that NCDC’s decentralised presence will boost the capability of states to respond to the state specific public health challenges both for communicable, non-communicable diseases and One Health needs.

Dr. Mandaviya commended the efforts of state governments for taking these initiatives forward and emphasized the need for collective and collaborative efforts between the Centre and States to enhance the country’s capacity in tackling future Pandemics. He also cautioned all the stakeholders of any slack in performing their duty.

The Health Minister also released following technical documents on the occasion:

1. IDSP, NCDC Digital release- “Community reporting tool on IHIP”

2. Centre for Environmental & Occupational Health, Climate Change and Health, NCDC Booklet release – “Climate Change and Health: Driving Local Action. A Collection of Case Studies on Adaptation and Mitigation Measures Implemented in Public Health Sector in India, 2023”

3. Epidemiology, NCDC technical report release- “Report of the First Multicentric Point Prevalence Survey of Antibiotic Use at 20 NAC-NET Sites”

4. IDSP, NCDC Guide book – “Outbreak Investigation Manual for Medical Officers”

5. Centre for One Health, NCDC vision document – “Vision document of Centre for One Health”- Harnessing Multisectoral Collaboration to protect communities by One Health Approach

6. National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control – “National Strategic Plan: Malaria Elimination-2023-27”

Dr Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Dept. of Health Research and DG, ICMR; Dr Atul Goel, DGHS and Director, NCDC; Smt. L.S. Changsan, Additional Secretary and Mission Director (NHM), Health Ministry; Smt. Roli Singh, Additional Secretary, Health Ministry; Shri Rajiv Manjhi, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry and senior officials from the Union Health Ministry and NCDC were present on the occasion.