Strengthening Public Health Capacity and Guidelines to prevent, detect and control the spread of epidemic prone infectious diseases through Cooperation and Support from World Health Organization (WHO)

Description

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention entered into its current five-year cooperative agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) on September 1, 2015. The agreement will end on August 31, 2019. CDC and WHO initiated these cooperative agreements in 1995 as an outgrowth of previous collaborations and as part of the CDC strategy to address emerging infectious diseases. Over the years, these agreements have served as broad-scope umbrella agreements under which a wide variety of projects addressing emerging infectious diseases may be undertaken collaboratively. On September 19, 2011, the Government of the United States of America and the World Health Organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to assist WHO Member States in strengthening their capacity to meet the requirements of the International Health Regulations (2005). The MOU encourages CDC and WHO to pursue activities that improve the abilities of all nations to detect, report, and respond to infectious diseases quickly and effectively. CDC program managers, WHO administrators, and national health authorities agree that the activities funded under the current agreement have supported the purposes of the MOU, strengthened overall infectious disease surveillance and response, improved national public health infrastructure, and provided critical technical assistance in support of global health security. This FOA serves to renew and extend this mutually beneficial partnership. The Core Component “Component 1: Core Activities” and central to this ongoing relationship, the CDC and the programs now within the WHO Health Emergencies Program (WHE) have worked together for decades across the globe to prevent, prepare for, detect, and respond to outbreaks and other emergencies with health consequences. While WHE and CDC have collaborated on numerous activities, greater overall institutional guidance and prioritization will provide coherent direction based on the five strategic objectives below: 1. Enhance global surveillance, early warning, risk investigation and assessment; 2. Advance the prevention and control of epidemic-prone diseases; 3. Support countries to implement the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MEF) and develop National Action Plans; 4. Strengthen country capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to emergencies and outbreaks, informed as appropriate by the results of the IHR (2005) MEF; and 5. Coordinate and contribute to the response to disease outbreaks and other emergencies with health consequences. A second component “ Component 2: Rapid Response to Highly Infectious Disease Outbreaks”of this funding opportunity is to ensure expanded collaboration between CDC and WHO in relation to emergency outbreaks with an ability to respond rapidly on short notice to be available to:• Assure rapid detection and response and safe handling of patients or specimens suspected of being infected with highly infectious diseases/agents.• Strengthen WHO emergency and preparedness and response capabilities.• Strengthen and fill gaps in ongoing public health infrastructure and programs. • Increase security and logistics for local responders.

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