The National Center for Disease Control is the Ministry of Health and Welfare's national center for public health research and surveillance, and is responsible for monitoring emerging diseases throughout the country as well as managing and implementing the Nation's Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP). The NCDC is expected to provide expertise to the States and Union Territories (UTs) on rapid health assessment and laboratory based diagnostic services. Surveillance of communicable diseases and outbreak investigations also forms a part of its activities, as well as developing reliable and cost-effective rapid diagnostic tools which could be effectively applied in the field for control of communicable diseases. This proposal will have two components, a research and public health component and an administrative core component. The purpose of the proposal is to accomplish the following overarching objectives: 1. Establishing high quality research and surveillance on important human infectious diseases with an emphasis on priority diseases within the IDSP network, applying new or enhanced laboratory diagnostic techniques to better define and understand the disease syndromes being reported to NCDC. 2. Establishing an ElS-like post graduate program for India, enhance existing epidemiology training, and develop and execute a strategy to build adequate epidemiology capacity for the country. 3. Strengthening the institutional capacity of NCDC and the MOH to conduct research, plan, implement and evaluate public health programs, provide surveillance and develop interventions as well as support national and regional infectious disease identification and control efforts through direct partnership between NCDC and GDC staff in research, program and operations support efforts and through training on laboratory, epidemiology and outbreak response. Public Health Relevance NCDC is the organization mandated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to address emerging public health issues. Partnering with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta and strengthening our capacity to detect and respond to emerging disease threats will result in shared expanded knowledge of the epidemiology and preventability of infectious diseases of emerging importance globally.
