American Society for Microbiology

• U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Initiatives (PEPFAR)
• International Emerging Infections Program Initiatives (IEIP)
• ASM-Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) Collaboration in India
• Tuberculosis (TB) Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) partnership with Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Initiatives (PEPFAR)

Under a multi-year Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ASM is collaborating with the CDC's Global AIDS Program (GAP) on capacity building of global HIV and clinical microbiology laboratories in resource-limited countries throughout the world in support of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiatives.

Under the direction of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator's Office, CDC/GAP is a partner in the unified U.S. Government effort to implement PEPFAR. CDC's long-standing partnerships with Ministries of Health support improvement of critical infrastructure and services to build sustainable national public health capacity and help resource-constrained countries prevent HIV infection; improve treatment, care, and support for people living with HIV.

LabCap support has focused primarily on tuberculosis (TB) and other HIV/AIDS opportunistic infection (OI) diagnostic strengthening. LabCap consultants travel to countries in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. Consultants provide onsite technical assistance. Ongoing activities include:

• Assessing laboratory systems
• Mentoring and training of in-country laboratory staff
• Providing technical support for the customization and rollout of consensus training packages and programs
• Assisting with the strengthening of laboratory quality systems, including development of quality control procedures, quality assurance programs, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Providing guidance for the standardization and selection of equipment and reagents
• Establishing, optimizing, and validating laboratory techniques and procedures
• Assisting with the establishment of national public health/reference laboratories
• Supporting the development of specimen referral networks
• Assisting with the coordination of infectious disease surveillance and outbreak response
• Developing national strategic plans for public health laboratory networks
• Guiding the development or optimization of national laboratory policies

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International Emerging Infections Program Initiatives (IEIP)

ASM is collaborating with the CDC's Global Disease Detection Program, CDC—COGH Global Disease Detection, in order to assist with one of its core components, the International Emerging Infections Program (IEIP). The IEIP is a collaboration between the CDC and a host country to develop and maintain centers of excellence that integrate four core activities: disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, capacity-building, and disease control and prevention.

ASM is providing technical expertise and consultation for building laboratory capacity and improving clinical microbiology for the diagnosis of respiratory diseases in select IEIP sites. Each site will implement active, population-based surveillance for pneumonia with varying levels of microbiological capacity. An accurate assessment of the pneumococcal disease burden in the IEIP countries will allow for better characterization of potential benefits from routine use of existing or new pneumococcal vaccines.

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ASM-Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) Collaboration in India

ASM is working with PATH in India under a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded initiative to strengthen the capacity of the Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL) network (expected to expand to one IRL/state or territory, or over thirty laboratories) to perform Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST). Collaboration objectives include:

• Accelerate national accreditation and build the technical capacity of Intermediate Reference Laboratories (IRLs) to perform reference tuberculosis (TB) laboratory functions, including solid TB culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST)
• Identify priority IRLs for accreditation and complete an evaluation of each of those IRLs
• Develop and implement an IRL accreditation work plan
• Build capacity for IRL activities
• Provide technical assistance for laboratory equipment maintenance

Since November 2008, ASM LabCap, in collaboration with PATH, has been assisting the Indian Central TB Division (CTD). The ultimate goal of this assistance is to ensure that selected IRLs obtain national accreditation, i.e. be deemed fully proficient in Mtb culture and DST by an overseeing National Reference Laboratory (NRL). States (or territories) with accredited IRLs will then be able to conduct drug resistance surveys (DRS) and implement the DOTS-Plus strategy to treat multidrug resistant (MDR)-TB.

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Tuberculosis (TB) Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) partnership with Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Through USAID's TB IQC, ASM partners with PATH to provide extensive support to USAID operating units in the implementation of their TB control and prevention programs through the introduction and expansion of the components of the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended STOP TB Strategy, which include:

• Pursue high-quality Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) expansion and enhancement
• Address TB/HIV, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and other challenges
• Contribute to health system strengthening
• Engage all care providers
• Empower people with TB, and communities
• Enable and promote research

The TB IQC places special emphasis on Component 2, particularly MDR-TB prevention and control and strengthening TB laboratory capacity. The TB IQC provides cost-effective access to technical expertise and implementation support to meet evolving USAID needs, including:

• Provision of customized technical expertise and implementation support to address USAID operating units' TB program needs
• Provision of a cost-effective implementation mechanism to reduce administrative costs for USAID operating units
• Attraction of new partners to provide TB expertise in priority technical areas
• Allowing USAID Regional Bureaus to provide assistance to USAID's "non-presence" countries

Principal tasks of the TB IQC include:

• TB Technical Assistance ASM will provide short- and long-term technical assistance to USAID operating units in implementing and scaling-up priority interventions in accordance with the WHO-recommended Stop TB Strategy and the Global MDR-TB and Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) Response Plan 2007 - 2008 and future longer term plans, including the U.S. President's Global Health Initiative.
• Global Leadership ASM will further USAID global technical leadership in TB control and new approaches to scaling-up the components of the Stop TB Strategy and implementing the activities set forth in the Global MDR-TB and XDR-TB Response Plan 2007 - 2008 and future longer term plans.

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