The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) is the nation's focal point for conducting disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, and research training. Since 1976, IEDCR has acted as Bangladesh’s leading public health research institution and, in 2007, was nominated a National Influenza Centre (NIC) by the World Health Organization.

Staffed with 115 employees, IEDCR is made up seven departments: biostatistics, epidemiology, medical entomology, medical social science, microbiology, parasitology, virology, and zoonoses.  IEDCR’s main areas of research include: parasitic diseases such as Kala-azar, malaria, filariasis, and intestinal parasites; viral diseases such as HIV, measles, rabies, and Nipah; bacterial diseases; skin diseases; and mass physcogenic illness (MPI).

Among other accomplishments, in 2008, IEDCR successfully conducted 29 outbreak investigations, created a BSL-3 laboratory, and improved its HIV serosurveillance data system. One of IEDCR’s major goals for the upcoming year is to extend surveillance for influenza-like illness (ILI) to 18 more district hospitals. It also wants to expand web-based disease surveillance to the sub-district level and improve on the institute’s existing capacity for surveillance and outbreak investigation.