The U.S. Government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a one- year, $19 million project to provide critical commodities to fight avian influenza.
The commodities provided under the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT are designed to contain outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza and to limit its potential to spread globally.
H5N1 avian influenza has to date been detected in 55 countries, resulting in the death or destruction of over 220 million birds and the deaths of 170 people, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and UN health officials. Its potential to mutate into a form easily transmitted among humans has sparked concerns about a potential human influenza pandemic. The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT aims to adequately equip and train animal health professionals to contain H5N1 avian influenza in animals, in an effort to halt its development into a pandemic strain.
In the past year, USAID has shipped personal protective equipment, decontamination kits, and laboratory specimen collection kits to more than 70 countries for disease surveillance and outbreak investigations and response. The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT will enhance these efforts by establishing a global distribution mechanism for the commodities. The project will also assist in forecasting and procurement planning to developing countries, which are particularly vulnerable because of resource and infrastructure shortages. In addition, the project, which is being managed by John Snow, Inc., will help with pre-positioning commodities in national and regional warehouses for rapid deployment in case of outbreaks.