[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 142 (Thursday, July 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43050-43052]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-17457]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Notification of a Single Source Cooperative Agreement Award for
the Pasteur Foundation
AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
Authority: Sections 301, 307, 1701, and 2811 of the Public
Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 241, 242l, 300u and 300hh-10.
ACTION: Notice
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant
Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Office of Policy and
Planning (OPP), intends to provide a Single Source Cooperative
Agreement Award to the Pasteur Foundation for project activities
carried out by the Pasteur Institute to support global health security
enhancements and International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005)
implementation in select Sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian
countries. Specifically, ASPR, in close coordination with the HHS
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other U.S.
Government (USG) stakeholders, will collaborate with the Pasteur
Institute and select affiliate institutes within the Pasteur Institute
International Network (IPIN) in
[[Page 43051]]
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Senegal,
and Cambodia to sustain and strengthen preparedness, detection, and
communication capacities for pandemic influenza and other emerging and
re-emerging infectious diseases in support of IHR (2005). Recognizing
that the health security of the American people is intrinsically linked
to the world's health security, and that international cooperation is
critical to enhance global health security, this program is aligned
with Article 44 of the IHR (2005), which directs State Parties to
collaborate to detect, assess, and respond to events while developing,
strengthening, and maintaining core public health surveillance and
response capacities. The proposed cooperative agreement is also aligned
with the Global Health Security Agenda that calls for action to
accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious
disease threats, and to promote global health security as an
international security priority by preventing and reducing the
likelihood of infectious diseases outbreaks, detecting threats early,
and rapidly and effective responding to disease outbreaks that require
multi-sectorial, international coordination and communication.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ http://www.globalhealth.gov/global-health-topics/global-health-security/ghsagenda.html.
DATES: The period of performance is from September 30, 2014 to
September 29, 2019.
Award Amount: $3.8-$4.2 million
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Division of International Health
Security in the Office of Policy and Planning is the program office for
this award.
Single Source Justification: The H1N1 2009 influenza pandemic,
outbreaks of novel influenza viruses with pandemic potential (e.g., A/
H7N9 and A/H5N1), growing global concern about potential public health
emergencies of international concern (PHEIC) due to Ebola, dengue,
Chikungunya, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, and the very
recent declaration of polio as a PHEIC,\2\ highlight continued and
persistent global disease threats with the potential to affect the
health security of the American people. The HHS collaboration with
international partners such as the Pasteur Institute is a critical
element in the strategy to prevent, respond to, and contain infectious
diseases before they spread.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2014/polio-20140505/en/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To this end, HHS and the Pasteur Institute signed two Memorandums
of Understanding with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012,
agreeing to support IHR (2005) implementation and global health
security by supporting international collaborations to prevent, prepare
for, and respond to influenza and other emerging diseases. The Pasteur
Institute possesses unique capabilities for global capacity-building.
The IPIN, a network of laboratories in 32 countries, spans five regions
around the globe, and is further connected with multiple international
stakeholders, including the CDC, the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance
and Response System, and WHO's Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens
Laboratory Networks. More than 70 percent of the IPIN affiliates are
located in disease outbreak hotspots prone to public health threats.
The Pasteur Institute and its affiliates represent an advanced
surveillance and laboratory network that is integrated with the public
health infrastructure of respective Ministries of Health, which is
vital to the host country's preparedness and response efforts.
ASPR, the Pasteur Institute, and IPIN affiliates have collaborated
on global health security efforts in recent years in partnership with
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Efforts enhanced
implementation of IHR (2005) core capacities focusing on detection and
management of actual or potential PHEICs caused by novel influenza
viruses with pandemic potential, including rapidly alerting the WHO and
other countries for a faster, more systematic, and comprehensive
response.
In the last seven years, ASPR has worked closely with the Pasteur
Institute and IPIN through a series of cooperative agreements that
included collaborations with CDC, the WHO, and partner countries to
build capacity to prepare for and respond to pandemic influenza. These
capacities were evident during the H1N1 2009 pandemic influenza, where
IPIN affiliates in countries supported by previous cooperative
agreements were among the first countries to rapidly establish
surveillance systems and laboratory capacity for H1N1. The achievements
of the previous programs include, among others, the establishment of 80
sentinel surveillance sites for influenza-like illness and the
establishment of hospital-based surveillance for severe acute
respiratory illnesses in Senegal, Cameroon, Central African Republic,
and the Ivory Coast. In many of these countries, these were the very
first efforts to implement surveillance programs for influenza. As a
result, these programs enabled the detection of influenza strains
circulating in Sub-Saharan Africa, helped monitor an antiviral
resistance strain, and supported the development of laboratory capacity
to detect for the first time, more than 17 different respiratory
viruses in the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Senegal.
Overall, laboratory infrastructure for influenza surveillance was
strengthened, resulting in three Institutes Pasteur affiliates
designated as National Reference Centers for influenza; four
laboratories designated as National Influenza Centers in Senegal,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, and the Ivory Coast; and
construction of Biosafety Level 3 laboratories in Cambodia and in the
Central African Republic.
IPIN and ASPR also supported enhancement of IHR National Focal
Point coordination and communication capacities by providing equipment
and training. Past collaboration efforts between ASPR and the Pasteur
Institute also supported bilateral relationships between the United
States and France, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, the Central
African Republic, Senegal, Cambodia, Laos, and regional partnerships
with WHO regional offices, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and
Southeast Asia. Other specific achievements, supported at least in part
by this collaboration, include the discovery of the genetic drift of A/
H5N1 in Cambodia. This resulted in regional and international
collaboration and exchanges of results and samples among stakeholders
including Cambodia's Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Forestry and
Fishery, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, CDC, IPIN,
the Food and Agricultural Organization, and the WHO. The capacities
established by the ASPR-Pasteur Institute collaboration on pandemic
influenza also enhanced preparedness and response to other emerging
infectious diseases. For example, it allowed the Institute Pasteur of
Dakar, Senegal, to maintain the WHO Collaborating Center for
arborviruses which detected the Ebola virus and deployed researchers to
support recent outbreaks in West Africa.
The policy and technical reach of IPIN across multiple continents,
their access to technologically advanced laboratory facilities, their
ability to draw upon a core of highly accomplished scientists, and
their large network of other governmental, private, and non-
governmental partnerships allows them to rapidly and expertly
accomplish large-scale policy implementation and programmatic
initiatives. These factors, combined with the historically strong
relationship between the Pasteur Institute and HHS, and a proven track
[[Page 43052]]
record of fiscal responsibility, fully justifies a sole source award.
In conclusion, contributing to and supporting global health security
and pandemic influenza preparedness remain an HHS priority. After
careful and thorough consideration of other potential partners, ASPR
concluded that the Pasteur Institute is the only partner with proven
capabilities and capacities to meet HHS's mandate to strengthen
influenza preparedness in countries prone to disease outbreaks where
the United States has not a long-standing bilateral relationship. For
the reasons stated above, the Pasteur Institute is uniquely qualified
and the only appropriate partner to facilitate and support successful
completion of the proposed project.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please submit an inquiry via the ASPR-
OPP Division of International Health Security--IHR Program Contact Form
located at http://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/international/ihr/Pages/IHRInquiry.aspx.
Dated: July 18, 2014.
Nicole Lurie,
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
[FR Doc. 2014-17457 Filed 7-23-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-37-P