Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2011 2012 2013 2014

Details for Mechanism ID: 13245
Country/Region: Guyana
Year: 2013
Main Partner: American Society for Microbiology
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: Private Contractor
Funding Agency: HHS/CDC
Total Funding: $50,000

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-Guyana, the Guyana Ministry of Health (MOH), the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP), and other local partners, will continue to expand its technical assistance (TA) to the Guyanese public health laboratory network, with emphasis on tuberculosis (TB) and other microbial opportunistic infections (OI). The specific objectives for FY12 are: 1. Continued improve human resources and laboratory infrastructure (including biosafety) for diagnosis of TB at National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) and select peripheral laboratories. 2. ASMs TA will continue to concentrate primarily on the NPHRL. However, during the annual visit by the ASM Program Manager, a plan will be developed to expand assistance to other TB laboratories in Guyana, taking into consideration the lessons learned during the previous year at the NPHL. To make better use of the scarce resources allocated to this program, ASM will coordinate its efforts with other partners, such as PAHO, to avoid duplication of activities; and also build on the lessons learned from FY11 activities. ASM will also continue to pull from its multiple in-house programs (fellowships, professorships etc) and resources (books etc) to help build local scientific capacity. ASM will continue to emphasize M&E as a means of routinely tracking the key elements of program performance and proposes to optimize efforts by developing more standardized and harmonized tools for data collection and reporting, which should be aligned with Guyanas existing data collection systems. This would minimize parallel M&E efforts and diminish reporting burden. These activities will be overseen by a staff M&E specialist.

Funding for Laboratory Infrastructure (HLAB): $50,000

For FY12, the ASM consultant will continue to train National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) laboratorians in tuberculosis (TB) solid culture, and newly implement multi-drug resistant TB identification and drug susceptibility testing (DST); and expand this training to other labs in the country. S/he will also assist with the introduction of new diagnostic methods, such as Capillia and line probe assays. ASM consultants will also continue to train NPHRL and regional laboratorians on opportunistic infection (OI) diagnostic techniques indentified as being needed by the national HIV care and treatment program in FY11.

Key Issues Identified in Mechanism
Tuberculosis