Integrated Disease Surveillance Project

Surveillance units have been established in all states/districts (SSU/DSU). Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) established and integrated in the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi.

Training of State/District Surveillance Teams and Rapid Response Teams (RRT) has been completed for all 36 States/UTs.

IT network connecting 776 sites in States/District HQ and premier institutes has been established with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for data entry, training, video conferencing and outbreak discussion.

Under the programme weekly disease surveillance data on epidemic prone disease are being collected from reporting units such as sub centres, primary health centres, community health centres, hospitals including government and private sector hospitals and medical colleges. The data are being collected on ‘S’ syndromic; ‘P’ probable; & ‘L’ laboratory formats using standard case definitions. Presently, more than 91% districts report such weekly data through e-mail/portal (www.idsp.nic.in). The weekly data are analyzed by SSU/DSU for disease trends. Whenever there is rising trend of illnesses, it is investigated by the RRT to diagnose and control the outbreak.

States/districts have been asked to notify the outbreaks immediately to the system. On an average, 30-40 outbreaks are reported every week by the States. 553 outbreaks were reported and responded to by states in 2008, 799 outbreaks in 2009, 990 in 2010, 1675 outbreaks in 2011, 1584 outbreaks in 2012, 1964 outbreaks in 2013, 1562 outbreaks in 2014 and 1935 outbreaks have been reported in 2015 till (53rd Week) 3rd January 2016.

Media scanning and verification cell (MSVC) was established under IDSP in July 2008 to improve Event-Based Surveillance & to catch unusual health events reported in the media. MSVC regularly monitors electronic & print media for these events. As of now, 25 newspapers (13 English & 12 Hindi newspapers) and 74 websites (62 English & 12 Hindi sites) are scanned on a daily basis. Since its inception 3513 Media Alerts has been issued by MSVC, including 450 Alerts reported in Year 2015. These Alerts are circulated to concerned States and districts along with key officials in NCDC and MoHFW for information & necessary action.

In decreasing order of frequency, 4 states from where most alerts were reported are; Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Delhi. The top 4 diseases making up these alerts (in decreasing order) are Food Poisoning, Dengue, H1N1 (Swine Flu), and Jaundice.

MSVC is presently staffed with 1 Assistant Director, 1 Epidemiologist and 2 Media Scanning Assistants.

District laboratories are being strengthened for diagnosis of epidemic prone diseases. These labs are also being supported by trained manpower to manage the lab and an annual grant of Rs 4 lakh per annum per lab for reagents and consumables. Till date 29 States (105 labs) have completed the procurement. In addition, a network of 12 laboratories has been developed for Influenza surveillance in the country.

A State based referral laboratory network has been established by utilizing the existing functional labs in the identified Medical Colleges and other major centres in the states and linking them with adjoining district for providing diagnostric services for epidemic prone diseases during outbreaks. Presently this network is functional in 22 States involving 99 labs.

Considering the non-availability of health professionals in the field of Epidemiology, microbiology and Entomology at district and state levels, MOHFW approved the recruitment of trained professionals under NHM in order to strengthen the disease surveillance and response system by placing one Epidemiologist each at state/district head quarters, one Microbiologist and Entomologist each at the state head quarters. The post of a Veterinary Consultant at State Surveillance Unit has been approved by the MOHFW recognizing the Mission Statement of One Health Initiative. 413 Epidemiologists, 114 Microbiologists, 27 Entomologists and 8 Veterinary Consultants are in position as on 15th Jan 2015. As on 15th Jan 2016, 729 DSOs have been trained in 2 weeks FETP under IDSP and 2956 Master Trainers have been trained under IDSP