Emerging Infections Program

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The Emerging Infections Program (EIP) was initiated in 1995 in response to the growing concern over the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. Following the 1992 Institute of Medicine report "Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to the United States,” CDC developed and published in 1994 a plan for addressing these threats.  That plan highlighted the foundational role of public health surveillance and included in its recommendations, the creation of a network of population-based centers of excellence established through state public health departments collaborating with academic institutions, local health departments, public health and clinical laboratories, infection control professionals, healthcare providers, and CDC for special surveillance and applied public health research, which became the EIP network.  The EIP network assists with local, state, and national efforts to prevent, control, and monitor the public health impact of infectious diseases.  Activities of the EIP network fall into the following overall categories: (1) active infectious disease surveillance; (2) applied public health epidemiologic and laboratory activities; (3) implementation and evaluation of pilot prevention/intervention projects; and (4) rapid and flexible response to public health emergencies and newly emerging issues for infectious diseases.  The EIP network is particularly suited to address key and emergent public health issues for the U.S. that require a collaborative approach across multiple sites and timely data to inform public health policy and practices and lead directly to the prevention of disease.The EIP network conducts active, population-based surveillance and special studies for respiratory viral diseases (influenza, COVID-19, RSV), invasive bacterial diseases including antibiotic-resistant infections, foodborne pathogens, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and many other infectious diseases.  The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having a multi-center surveillance and applied research platform to rapidly respond to public health threats. The EIP network has also played a critical role in responding to emerging infectious diseases by rapidly implementing new collaborative activities, such as the establishment of COVID-NET to rapidly gather public health data for action on COVID-19 hospitalization rates, patient characteristics, and vaccine effectiveness.The purpose of this NOFO is to sustain and enhance the multi-site Emerging Infections Program (EIP) network which provides high quality scientific information to monitor emerging infectious diseases in the U.S., evaluate public health interventions, and inform public health policy. Activities of the EIP network include infrastructure and data modernization to support: (1) active surveillance; (2) applied public health epidemiologic and laboratory activities; (3) implementation and evaluation of pilot prevention/intervention projects; and (4) rapid and flexible response to public health emergencies and newly emerging issues for infectious diseases. The EIP network addresses key public health issues collaboratively, using population-based data, to inform public health policy recommendations and treatment guidelines for the prevention of disease. Required activities include Infrastructure and Data Modernization and Surveillance and Reporting 1 & 2. Other EIP activities include: Influenza (FluSurv-NET), Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV-NET), COVID-19 (COVID-NET), Active Bacterial Core Surveillance (ABCs), Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), Healthcare-Associated Infections – Community Interface (HAIC), Human Papilloma Virus IMPACT, Lyme and Other Tickborne Diseases (TickNET), Prion Disease, and other infectious-disease related activities and applicant-specific activities.

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