Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=42348
Press Release
June 21, 2010
Purdue University will receive a $1.6 million grant from the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program to work with three Pakistani institutions to develop real-time infectious disease surveillance and responses.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) informed U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar of the grant today.
The objective of the five year collaboration is to develop a broadly-based real-time framework for collecting, communicating, analyzing, and visualizing infectious disease epidemic data in Pakistan.
?With the growing security and bioterrorism threats in Pakistan, there is a dire need to develop a robust and reliable health surveillance and rapid-response infrastructure with the capability to collect and analyze massive, time-evolving epidemic data in real-time. The goal is to mitigate human and financial losses, a challenge exacerbated in highly populous areas where thousands of new cases can occur on a daily basis,? the DTRA announcement stated.
?Each year, millions of Pakistanis are exposed to, and infected with, deadly pathogens including hepatitis, dengue, tuberculosis, H5N1 and H1N1. Lack of a robust infrastructure for timely collection, reporting and analyses of infectious diseases (IDs) data undermines epidemic preparedness and poses serious health challenges and security threats to the general public in Pakistan. In fact, monitoring and response to any natural or manmade ID outbreak is nonexistent in the country due to insufficient resources, ineffective screening, poorly trained staff and inadequate health policy implementation. The absence of security measures for protecting supply of food products and drinking water exposes additional serious health and security vulnerabilities.?
The three Pakistan partners are: Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore; the King Edward Medical University and its affiliated Mayo Hospital; and the Fatima Jinnah Medical College and its affiliated Sir Ganga Ram Hospital...
Press Release
June 21, 2010
Purdue University will receive a $1.6 million grant from the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program to work with three Pakistani institutions to develop real-time infectious disease surveillance and responses.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) informed U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar of the grant today.
The objective of the five year collaboration is to develop a broadly-based real-time framework for collecting, communicating, analyzing, and visualizing infectious disease epidemic data in Pakistan.
?With the growing security and bioterrorism threats in Pakistan, there is a dire need to develop a robust and reliable health surveillance and rapid-response infrastructure with the capability to collect and analyze massive, time-evolving epidemic data in real-time. The goal is to mitigate human and financial losses, a challenge exacerbated in highly populous areas where thousands of new cases can occur on a daily basis,? the DTRA announcement stated.
?Each year, millions of Pakistanis are exposed to, and infected with, deadly pathogens including hepatitis, dengue, tuberculosis, H5N1 and H1N1. Lack of a robust infrastructure for timely collection, reporting and analyses of infectious diseases (IDs) data undermines epidemic preparedness and poses serious health challenges and security threats to the general public in Pakistan. In fact, monitoring and response to any natural or manmade ID outbreak is nonexistent in the country due to insufficient resources, ineffective screening, poorly trained staff and inadequate health policy implementation. The absence of security measures for protecting supply of food products and drinking water exposes additional serious health and security vulnerabilities.?
The three Pakistan partners are: Al-Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore; the King Edward Medical University and its affiliated Mayo Hospital; and the Fatima Jinnah Medical College and its affiliated Sir Ganga Ram Hospital...