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

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

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

USAID Press Office: +1-202-712-4320