HYDERABAD: A Metropolitan Surveillance Unit (MSU), a special facility equipped to monitor and analyse disease patterns in urban areas, is set to become operational in Hyderabad within the next two months.
Approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) under the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the MSU will enhance the city’s preparedness for disease outbreaks, drawing from lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The MSU will function as a specialised disease surveillance hub, conducting advanced diagnostic testing for communicable diseases and issuing alerts for potential outbreaks. It will not handle routine lab testing but will focus on diseases listed under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), including anthrax, chickenpox, diphtheria, measles, meningitis, mumps, pertussis, Ebola, Zika, Nipah and yellow fever, among others.
GHMC officials told TNIE that the MSU will serve as a crucial node for surveillance, early warning and rapid response to outbreaks. “The objective is to strengthen urban public health systems by enabling data-driven action. MSUs will be the first line of defence in identifying and containing future epidemics,” they said.
