OpportunityTitle: Strengthening Ebola rapid detection and response capacity through community based surveillance and safe burial practices
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Description: Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), previously known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus strains. Ebola can cause disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). The EVD outbreak in West Africa in 2014 is considered to be the largest EVD outbreak in history. In Guinea, one of the most affected countries in West Africa, an estimated 3,800 total cases, resulting in 2500 deaths have been reported by WHO (updated May 2016). In March 2016, WHO declared the end of EVD as a public health emergency of international concern. However, small clusters of EVD continued to occur, primarily as the result of transmission from survivors in whom the virus persists well after recovery from EVD. The most recent cluster in Guinea was identified on March 17. The cluster resulted in seven confirmed cases and three probable cases in Guinea, as well as three confirmed cases in Liberia, and clearly originated as a result of sexual transmission from a survivor who had confirmed EVD in November of 2014.. On June 1, 2016, WHO declared the end of EVD transmission in Guinea, as forty-two days had passed since the last person confirmed to have EVD tested negative. Guinea is now in a 90-day period of heightened surveillance to ensure that any new cases are identified quickly before they can spread. Ongoing disease surveillance is critical for Guinea&apos;s continued transition from EVD emergency response into the recovery period, particularly given the ongoing risks (illustrated by the cluster described above). While the global health community&apos;s collective understanding of EVD continues to evolve, the March-April 2016 EVD case cluster in Guinea&apos;s Forest Region demonstrated that more than a year after recovery, EVD survivors can still transmit the virus through bodily fluids, particularly semen. While Guinea has demonstrated some capacity to address occasional clusters, the country remains at risk of EVD transmission as there are nearly 1,270 EVD survivors countrywide. Mitigating the risk of survivor transmission requires that Guinea implement a pragmatic and operational disease surveillance plan. Because the symptoms of Ebola infection are non-specific, it is essential that surveillance include an approach to diagnostic testing in suspected cases of EVD. Because testing is most reliable late in disease, a pragmatic approach to this is to ensure continued testing for Ebola among persons who have died, particularly in the highest risk geographic areas (those that have experienced a large number of prior cases/those with large numbers of survivors). While WHO has recently suggested an additional 90 days of heightened surveillance, there is very limited information about the duration of viral persistence in survivors and thus the duration of heightened risk in a country that has experienced a major epidemic. Thus, the capacity for testing must be maintained for the foreseeable future and it is essential that that capacity be transferred from partner organizations to persons with long term responsibility for managing health risks in the community. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has taken steps to respond to the rapidly changing EVD outbreak situation in West Africa. Hundreds of CDC staff members have provided logistics, staffing, communication, analytics, management, and other support functions for the response. CDC has established a Country Office in the region to assist with response and recovery efforts, including surveillance, contact tracing, data management, laboratory testing, and health education. In order to ensure rapid recognition of future cases and to ensure that any future flare ups of the EVD outbreak are rapidly controlled CDC must work with partners on the ground to strengthen the active surveillance conducted by community volunteers, community health workers (CHWs) and health facilities in the field, and assist the local governments with the needed epidemiologic technical assistance as needed to ensure that suspect cases are tested, contacts are identified and monitored, , and appropriate Infection Control and Prevention (IPC) activities occur within the local community level to prevent and control transmission. Rapid diagnostic tests offer the most practical way to test corpses. These tests have been newly developed in the context of the epidemic. While the performance characteristics are favorable, there is not widespread expertise with the use and interpretation of these tests and their effective use requires that they be used safely (for example with appropriate infection control precautions) and that they be linked with safe burials. The testing and safe burials are two of the most important interventions for breaking the chain of transmission of Ebola. At this time, community-based surveillance programs are in early development in Guinea and the notification rate of community deaths is less than 50% in potential flare-up areas.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Grants Policy
GrantorContactText: Yvette Valentine&lt;br/&gt;ybt0@cdc.gov&lt;br/&gt;
CloseDateExplanation: Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.