NCDC

Partner 5 – National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)

NCDC, Tbilisi, Georgia, is a primary public health center in Georgia with several diagnostic and research laboratories. The main activities of the Center are: surveillance and control of infectious diseases through the whole territory of Georgia; development and implementation measures against epidemics; carrying out epidemiological, diagnostic, bacteriological, virological and molecular- biological investigations; coordination of the immunization program; development of methodic and normative documents on surveillance, control and prevention of diseases; collection and exchange information about infectious and non-infectious diseases inside and outside of the country; preparation and printing methodic and information materials; providing information to the governmental and international organizations.

The NCDC has a broad experience in field surveys. There are 8 laboratories functioning at NCDC: Respiratory Diseases; Zoonoses and Anaerobic Diseases; Cholera and Diarrhoeal Diseases; Plague and other diseases with natural foci; Poliomyelitis and other Enteroviruses; Viral and Rickettsial Diseases; Molecular Epidemiology, Cell Cultures Laboratories are focused on isolation and identification of causative agents, molecular typing of isolated strains and diagnostics. All isolated strains are catalogued and stored in the NCDC culture collection. The NCDC has the most comprehensive bacterial culture collection in Georgia, with some isolates more than 25 years old.

Since 2004 the project “Development of Surveillance System and Control Strategy for Leishmaniasis in Georgia” has been carrying out with the aim to investigate an active focus of visceral leishmaniasis located in the central part of the capital of Georgia – Tbilisi. During the project activities in the studied focus: prevalence and incidence rates of the disease among target group of human population as well as seroprevalence rates among pet and stray dogs were determined, diversity of sand flies population, seasonal dynamics and their feeding status were determined, sand fly species were incriminated as vectors of the disease, parasite strains are isolated and identified, parasite strains isolated from human and dog samples were cultivated and preserved.

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