Oregon Application for Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging InfectiousDiseases - The purpose of this funding is to protect the health and safety of the American people, and in particular people in Oregon, by enhancing the ability of Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and its partners to effectively prevent, detect, and respond to emerging infectious disease threats. Through this application, OHA proposes to maintain capacity to improve infectious disease surveillance systems and outbreak response as well as provide training to local public health authorities (LPHAs) in these areas. Secondly, we propose to improve laboratory capacity through continued collaboration with LPHAs to enhance the timely receipt of specimens, testing, and results reporting while maintaining core instrumentation to assure operational readiness and response. Thirdly, we propose to maintain capacity to improve health information systems by advancing standards-based electronic data exchange, increasing information systems interoperability, and sustaining and enhancing integrated surveillance information systems. Within this application, OHA proposes to augment our current capacity through the addition of projects enhancing genomic surveillance (Project D), wastewater surveillance (Project E), vaccine-preventable disease surveillance and response (Project J), gonorrhea surveillance (Project Q), and rabies surveillance (Project R). Oregon will leverage this funding opportunity to build upon the enhancement achieved during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency while refocusing our attention on urgent communicable disease threats, including healthcare-associated infections such as Candida auris, antibiotic-resistant shigellosis clusters, and highly pathogenic avian influenza monitoring.
