In a bid to give impetus to laboratory diagnosis of emerging diseases of public health importance, government is all set to establish National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) centre in Jammu and Kashmir.In this regard, the authorities have shortlisted two locations of Vijaypur or Chowadi for the NCDC after taking into consideration the feasibility and advantageous aspects of the places.This information has been given by Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo here today during his visited to both the identified locations of Vijaypur and Chowadi to personally assess the viability and practicability of the proposed sites for the Centre.He was accompanied by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma; Director Health Services, Jammu, Renu Sharma and other officials of Revenue department.It is pertinent to mention that Head of the Department, Establishment and Strengthening of NCDC New Branches, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Jai Karan, had recently visited Jammu and discussed the matter with the Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education regarding establishment of NCDC.During his visit to the proposed locations, the FC asked the concerned authorities to take the matter with the NCDC officials so that they would inspect both the sites and finalize the best suitable place. He also asked the Revenue officials to initiate the demarcation process immediately as soon as the NCDC officials select the final site for the Center.
The NCDC will serve as a link between the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Centre along with the International Health Bodies for expediting measures for Prevention and Control of Communicable and non-Communicable diseases. NCDC is the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases. In coordination with the state and Central government, NCDC has the capacity and capability for disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, and rapid response to contain and combat outbreaks. The mandate of the Institute broadly covers three areas viz. services, trained health manpower development and research.The FC said that establishment of NCDC branch in Jammu and Kashmir will provide support in strengthening Integrated Disease Surveillance Activities besides expanding referral diagnostic services for communicable diseases of public health importance.He also said that the centre would support in preparedness and immediate response to disease outbreaks, besides providing logistic support including storage and distribution of diagnostic kits, drugs and vaccines.