The Kerala Centre for Disease Control (K-CDC), the State government’s proposed technical advocacy group for the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, is expected to be launched around April-May this year.
According to Health department officials, it will be headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram. The centre, with a motto “Think Global and Act Regional”, will have a temporary office at the public health training centre of the Health department for the time being. It is modelled after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. The government had in 2023 asked the Indian Institute of Public Health under the Public Health Foundation of India to prepare a detailed project report (DPR). According to the DPR, the centre is expected to have 14 divisions dealing with various health-related sectors.
Some of the proposed areas of action include population genetics, injury prevention, communicable and non-communicable diseases, mental health, and the One Health model for multi-disciplinary collaboration. At present, efforts will be made to virtually form teams of experts, both from inside and outside the State, in these sectors. An analysis of the various diseases will be done thereafter to propose required policy interventions.
Sources say that Kerala’s health scenario is markedly different from other States considering factors such as its geographical structure, the increasing number of travellers from here, and ageing population. This is resulting in new infectious diseases being reported from here. The decision to set up a centre for disease control in the State on the lines of the U.S.-based CDC was taken during the pandemic period. Budgetary allocation was made in the 2021 Budget and a special officer was appointed.
A. Naveen, State project head, K-CDC, says that the first initiative of the centre will be a public health emergency operation unit. It is a programme for disease forecasting using Artificial Intelligence-based data analysis. Disease modelling, predictive analysis, and epidemic intelligence surveillance are part of it. The trends of various diseases being reported from various parts of Kerala need to be made available on a dashboard so that alerts can be issued to those areas. A satellite unit of the centre has started functioning along with the Kerala One Health Centre for Nipah Research at the Government Medical College, Kozhikode.
Published – March 11, 2025 06:59 pm IST
