Department of Health and Human Services August 10, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In FY2011, HHS/ASPR/OPP plans to provide a Single Source Cooperative Agreement Award to the Pasteur Foundation to build and strengthen core capacities for influenza preparedness and response in support of International Health Regulations (2005) implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. ASPR, in close coordination with the HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will collaborate with the Pasteur Institute and Pasteur Institute affiliates in Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Senegal in Africa, and Cambodia in Asia to develop and implement activities for preparedness and response for pandemic influenza with applicability to other emerging respiratory infections and public health threats in general. The project will focus on building upon existing routine health systems to further develop IHR (2005) core capacities including communication (IHR National Focal Point communication), workforce development, and surveillance and laboratory diagnostics. This work will be performed in the context of Article 44 of the IHR (2005), which directs State Parties to collaborate with each other to detect, assess, and respond to events, and to develop, strengthen, and maintain core public health capacities for surveillance and response.

The ``Lifeline Facebook App Challenge'' is a challenge aimed at multidisciplinary teams of technology developers, entrepreneurs, and members of the disaster preparedness, response and recovery communities to use Facebook as a platform for connecting individuals together through an application (app) that will provide actionable steps for Facebook users to increase their own personal preparedness and strengthen connections within their social networks for the sake of personal preparedness and community resilience. This challenge will provide useful tools for public health promotion and protection, a key goal for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).