USAID RFI: Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems (STRIDES) Activity

Notice ID 7200AA24RFI00002

The United States Government, represented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington Bureau for Global Health Security (GHS) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for the purpose of collecting feedback related to the design summary of the Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems (STRIDES) Activity.

To support missions, USAID/Washington is currently designing a new, centrally-managed GHS award which is intended to strengthen country capacities for surveillance and detection – STRengthening Infectious disease DEtection Systems (STRIDES). Following its development mandate, this new award will focus on providing training and other support to in-country counterparts to enhance the capacity of national and sub-national laboratory networks and surveillance systems; develop and strengthen data collection, analysis, and reporting relating to surveillance and detection systems; and provide targeted technical assistance during outbreaks for detection, surveillance, and data analysis and management. During initial scoping of the new award, USAID has proposed the following objectives and cross cutting principles. These activities will be anchored in biosafety and biosecurity technical assistance and oversight to complement these capacity-building lines of effort. Objective 1: Strengthen detection capacity and systems at the national and sub-national level for both human and animal laboratory networks and increase access to quality laboratory services for diseases of public health importance. A national detection system and laboratory network is the foundation through which countries are able to safely and accurately identify and characterize pathogens of public health importance so as to mitigate and treat infectious diseases of priority concern. This includes the ability of countries to address the growing threats of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that are associated with many pathogens and identification of resistant infectious strains. Activities to strengthen detection target a core set of components considered essential for a quality detection network ranging from national reference laboratories to sub-national level facilities and point-of-care diagnostic services. The key components include: strategic planning and budgeting for detection services, network coordination, procurement and logistics management of commodities, waste management, clinical coordination for timely diagnosis, laboratory management information systems, biosafety and security, specimen referral and transport, workforce development focused on quality standards and supportive supervision3. Other components, including policies, regulations and guidelines, may be relevant depending on the country’s situation. Objective 2: Develop sustainable surveillance systems, using event-based (EBS) and indicatorbased surveillance (IBS) systems, to detect events of significance for public health and health security. Surveillance is an essential component for identifying, mitigating and responding to infectious disease threats, including AMR, in animals and humans. Real-time surveillance data collected is a critical part of a country’s capacity to support an early warning system for potential events, calculate burden of disease, identify affected areas or species, and understand and address risk factors and mechanisms by which infectious disease or AMR transmission occurs. These data are crucial for supporting prevention efforts, ensuring that surveillance is evidence-based and targeted based on risk, while supporting response and containment efforts. Event-based surveillance monitors public health events, illnesses, or deaths that might signal an outbreak is occurring while indicator-based surveillance routinely monitors specific, notifiable diseases. Within surveillance systems, staff should be trained to identify notifiable diseases or symptoms and safely collect and transport high-quality samples in order for laboratories to produce accurate and actionable data. Ongoing operational and budget challenges in sample collection and transportation need to be addressed, such as temperature monitors, cold chain, storage capacity, and shipment costs. Ideally, surveillance systems for priority zoonotic disease are coordinated across sectors (e.g. animal, human, environment), sustainable, and can be used to monitor diseases routinely (inter-outbreak) as well as during outbreaks, and can be flexible to respond during outbreaks and pivot for new diseases.

More here.

🔊 Listen to Story