Strengthening Public Health Laboratory Systems in the Republic of Cameroon under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

Description

The Award Ceiling for Year 1 is 0 (none). CDC anticipates an Approximate Total Fiscal Year Funding amount of 5,000,000 for Year 1, subject to the availability of funds. Access to quality diagnostics and laboratory services is critical for effective diagnosis, treatment, and management of HIV and HIV-related infections and plays a central role in achieving UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. For the past decade, PEPFAR-supported laboratory strengthening efforts have led to improvements in the quality of HIV diagnostic and laboratory services. Most of the gains are in regions that were historically PEPFAR-supported. In 2019 PEPFAR expanded to all ten regions. This expansion came with no additional laboratory program funding and despite strategies employed to stretch both financial and human resources (HR) to these new regions, the resulting impact was sub-optimal. This NOFO will focus on technical assistance and support to sustain indigenous laboratory capacity in Cameroon to: Improve access to quality laboratory diagnostics; Increase capacity for HIV Proficiency Testing (PT); Strengthen referral networks; Train and mentor laboratorians and Quality Corps (Q-Corps) who are science college graduates and serve as volunteers to increase HR capacity and scale-up Rapid HIV testing continuous quality improvement (RTCQI) activities; and Support development and implementation of Laboratory Information Systems. To accomplish these goals and institutionalize policies and activities to ensure the quality of diagnosis, there will be collaboration with the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) and the Department of Pharmacy, Drugs and Laboratories.

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