Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2010 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Details for Mechanism ID: 12642
Country/Region: Caribbean Region
Year: 2010
Main Partner: Not Available
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: NGO
Funding Agency: HHS/CDC
Total Funding: $0

The purpose of this mechanism is to enable the USG Caribbean laboratory working group to collaborate with key resource persons including staff of the Global AIDS Program International Laboratory Branch (ILB) at CDC Atlanta, USG colleagues from other PEPFAR countries and non-USG partners. This mechanism will support these key resource persons to visit the region as consultants and assist in implementing technical laboratory services and systems including execution of laboratory operational studies. This mechanism will also support consultancy fees for non-USG consultants, costs of shipping patients samples to CDC Atlanta for analysis, and travel for laboratory scientists from the Caribbean Region countries where the samples are collected to Atlanta and/or other laboratories to participate in the analysis and generation of data from these samples. Governments within the region have expressed the need for data from laboratory operational studies to improve current laboratory services and support various cross-cutting activities.

This implementing mechanism is in direct support of the USG Caribbean Partnership Framework Laboratory System Goal 3 (objective 3.2: Improve laboratory services and systems).

This mechanism will build the capacity of Caribbean region laboratory staff and will facilitate generation of laboratory operational data to inform services and lab policy. The training of young scientists through these studies will support sustainable national infrastructure, workforce capacity and expanded services to provide quality diagnostic testing, clinical laboratory monitoring of treatment, and surveillance.

Funding for Laboratory Infrastructure (HLAB): $0

This CDC Central Laboratory Support mechanism will be used to request technical assistance (TA) on a short term consultancy basis to provide training and other assistance to implement the following activities: development of HIV rapid testing algorithms and training and roll-out of HIV rapid testing. Successful training and roll out of rapid testing will include cost effective quality assurance activities utilizing Dried Tube Specimen (DTS) technology, and use standardized logbooks at all HIV testing sites. This mechanism will also support other onsite supervision and training such as GCLP, quality management, HIV drug resistance set-up, and regional and national TB QA/QC programs.

This mechanism will also support laboratory operational studies to address key questions within the region, such as:

Determining HIV incidence using the BED testing of archived HIV positive and negative samples from Jamaica, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, the highest HIV prevalence countries within the 12-country region. This information will provide critical information on current transmission trends and patterns for HIV surveillance and will therefore inform HIV prevention interventions.

Determining HIV genetic subtypes and drug resistance using archived samples from Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. This will provide vital information particularly on current HIV heterogeneity, which has implications for treatment, diagnosis, and vaccine development. The drug resistance data is vital particularly for the prevalence of primary HIV drug resistance and its public health implications.

Evaluation of the oral fluid based HIV rapid test kits, as they have been shown to be more user friendly for HIV rapid testing.

Evaluation of the most appropriate Point-Of-Care CD4 machine. The Caribbean region seeks to select common CD4 platforms that will streamline maintenance and procurement.

This mechanism will support the purchase of reagents and other consumables as well as travel of laboratory scientists to carry out these studies.