Jhpiego receives prestigious AIDSTAR contract
06 June 2007
Baltimore, Maryland—The U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) announced this week that an international consortium led by Jhpiego, an international health affiliate
of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has been awarded a 5-year AIDS Support and Technical Assistance
Resources Indefinite Quantity Contract (AIDSTAR). Jhpiego is one of an anticipated eight organizations
allowed to compete for a projected $500 million in future procurements.
The purpose of the contract is to establish a funding mechanism to make technical assistance,
implementation and support available to the U.S. Government in the 114 countries that benefit from the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), including the 15 focus countries. The Jhpiego-led team will compete
for contracts in the following HIV/AIDS technical areas: prevention; care and support; treatment/antiretroviral
therapy and related services; stigma and discrimination; gender; program-related data collection and analysis;
technical capacity building/systems strengthening; and technical leadership and knowledge management.
Jhpiego's current HIV/AIDS-related activities take place in more than 25 countries in Africa and
the Caribbean, with funding from U.S. Government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), USAID and the Department of Defense. Its HIV/AIDS programs work to build the capacity of health care workers
to provide quality HIV/AIDS care, treatment and prevention services in areas such as antiretroviral therapy,
counseling and testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), TB and other opportunistic infections,
and male circumcision. Since 2002, Jhpiego has worked with the CDC through its University Technical Assistance
Program in support of the Global AIDS Program. Additionally, Jhpiego is the leader of ACCESS, a five-year global
program sponsored by USAID to improve the health of mothers and their newborns through clinical interventions
such as PMTCT.
Jhpiego's AIDSTAR consortium includes representation from every international health unit at
The Johns Hopkins University as well as other international implementers of HIV/AIDS programming. The consortium's
major partners are The Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International
Training and Research Program, HOPE worldwide, Khulisa Management Services, Reproductive Health and
HIV Research Unit, Social Sectors Development Strategies, Inc., Society for Women and AIDS in Africa, Yayasan
(Foundation) Kusuma Buana, and local and regional agencies.
"Jhpiego has been a leader for years in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment," says Dr. Leslie
Mancuso, President and CEO of Jhpiego. "This opportunity positions Jhpiego to continue to build upon its reputation
as a global leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS."
Since 1973, Jhpiego (pronounced "ja-pie-go") has built global and local partnerships to enhance
the quality of health care services for women and their families. Through targeted advocacy, education and service
delivery programming, Jhpiego helps host-country governments, policymakers, educators, clinicians and communities
increase the availability and accessibility of high-quality health care services.
In more than 140 countries, Jhpiego's interventions in maternal and child health; family planning
and reproductive health; HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment; infection prevention; cervical cancer prevention;
human resources management; and performance and quality improvement, among other technical and programmatic areas,
have led to measurable progress toward nationally and internationally defined health care goals.
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