Looking Back - National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases

Eastern India, notably the Gangetic belt is considered as the "homeland" of cholera and a focal point of many of the epidemics and some of the pandemics. A great deal of work had already been done but there were many unturned chapters on cholera that motivated the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to establish a renewable temporary set up of "Cholera Research Centre" (CRC) at Calcutta in 1962. The Centre has been given the status of "International Reference Centre for Vibrio Phage Typing" by the WHO in 1968 and later on redesignated as the "WHO Collaborative Centre for Reference and Research in Vibrios" in 1978 for providing referral services to the member countries. With continuing advancement of the centre the ICMR changed this temporary research Centre into "National Institute" and renamed as "National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases" (NICED) in 1979. The WHO recognised this Institute as "WHO Collaborative Centre for Research and Training on Diarrhoeal Diseases" in 1980.