DAI-Led Team Selected to Implement USAID Response to Emerging Infectious Diseases

November 3, 2009

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health is pleased to announce a partnership with DAI to strengthen the human capacity of countries to identify and respond to outbreaks of newly emergent diseases in a timely and sustainable manner. DAI leads a distinguished team including the University of Minnesota, Tufts University, Training Resources Group, Inc., and Ecology and Environment, Inc. This is a five-year cooperative agreement with a ceiling of $185 million.

This project, named RESPOND, is part of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats Program - a specialized set of projects that build on the successes of the Agency's 30 years of work in disease surveillance, training and outbreak response. RESPOND will focus on the development of outbreak investigation and response training that merges animal and human health dynamics into a comprehensive capacity of disease detection and control.

Incorporating animal and human health epidemiology and disease surveillance, RESPOND will employ an integrated approach that unites public and private sector organizations to combat emerging disease on a global scale. The program will focus on long-term, short-term and in-service training, and academic preparation for health professionals. The program will also seek to establish effective responses to counter outbreaks while they are still within animal populations as well as strengthen the capacity to respond to outbreaks within human communities.

RESPOND will be led by Dr. David Elkins, an epidemiologist and public health specialist with 25 years of field experience. Other key staff include Janelle Kempel, the project's deputy director, Felicia Nutter, a wildlife veterinarian and instructor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, and Douglas Hatch, a medical epidemiologist with over 20 years experience in field epidemiology training. The project will be managed out of USAID's Avian and Pandemic Influenza Unit.

For more information about USAID, please visit www.usaid.gov.

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for nearly 50 years.

Public Information: 202-712-4810

SOURCE USAID