INDIA is a hotbed not only of strange diseases but of stranger disease surveillance and control institutions. Every year, known and unknown fevers erupt in all parts of the country, and the New Delhi-based National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) swings into inaction. The procedure is a standard one: it claims to have investigated the epidemic, but, when asked, is unable to provide any information on the causative agent.

This is why the recent nomination of NICD as the nodal institute to track down and rein in the bird flu epidemic in the South Asia region is a matter of extreme worry. Governments the world over have responded with alacrity to possible pandemics such as the deadly avian flu or SARS