The National Dengue Control Unit was established formally in 2005 as a coordinating unit and upgraded in 2012 as a directorate with an annual budget allocation by the Ministry of Health. It comprises both the technical and administrative staff under the Director and the Directorate operates under the Deputy Director General of Public Health Services 1, which is under the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka.

The NDCU is directly responsible for implementing dengue control jointly with the provincial, district and divisional curative and preventive health services. The activities of the NDCU include disease and vector surveillance, integrated vector management (IVM), evidence-based clinical care, intersectoral coordination, social mobilization, risk communication, outbreak preparedness and response, operational research support, national and international networking, and monitoring and evaluation. The NDCU provides technical guidance for vector control and IVM, However, some integration is needed for resource sharing at the grass root level. An important task of the Unit is to strengthen the capacity of public and curative health staff at all levels including provision of all necessary equipment, insecticides, reagents, supplies, items for clinical management and test kits for insecticide resistance monitoring. This also includes support to establish the High Dependency Units (HDUs) at the primary, secondary and tertiary care hospitals.

Although the NDCU is located centrally under the Ministry of Health, it conducts activities for the prevention and control of dengue, through the provincial and regional directors of health services up to the Medical Officers of Health. It provides both technical guidance and financial support to the provinces and districts to carry out dengue control activities.