Accelerating the Prevention and Control of HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STDs and TB in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands | CDC RFA PS18 1801

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA PS18 1801

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through the Department of Health and Human Services and its National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), released this cooperative agreement funding opportunity to strengthen public health systems across the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). The USAPI include the U.S. territories of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, along with the sovereign nations of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. The core idea behind the opportunity is to provide coordinated support to jurisdictions that face unique geographic and resource constraints, while also carrying a high burden of sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis, and needing stronger HIV prevention for populations at higher risk.

A major driver for this grant is the reality that health care delivery and public health operations in these islands are unusually challenging. Communities are spread across large ocean distances, making patient follow-up, specimen transport, outreach, and continuity of care difficult and expensive. Many jurisdictions have limited laboratory capacity, which can slow diagnosis and treatment and weaken outbreak detection. Surveillance systems may be fragmented across programs or islands, limiting timely data sharing and making it harder to see the full picture of disease trends. The FOA is designed to address these structural issues, not just individual disease programs, by building capacity that can be used across HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB.

The opportunity emphasizes integration and collaboration across disease areas rather than funding isolated, separate efforts. It aims to promote program collaboration and service integration so that jurisdictions can better diagnose, treat, and prevent HIV, STDs, TB, and viral hepatitis in people who often share overlapping risk factors and health system touchpoints. In practical terms, this means encouraging coordinated testing strategies, shared prevention and linkage-to-care pathways, and aligned case management and partner services where appropriate. The expectation is that integration will reduce missed opportunities for diagnosis and treatment, improve client experience, and stretch limited local resources further.

Another central focus is strengthening surveillance and public health data use. The FOA highlights improving the collection, sharing, reporting, analysis, interpretation, and practical use of surveillance data. This reflects a need for stronger end-to-end data systems: better case reporting, more consistent data standards, improved analytic capacity, and clearer pathways for turning data into action. Better surveillance supports everything from identifying hotspots and priority populations to monitoring treatment outcomes, evaluating program performance, and responding quickly to emerging problems.

The grant also stresses policy and planning work that helps jurisdictions use resources effectively and improve health outcomes. That includes implementing policies and plans that support efficient service delivery, quality improvement, and sound public health governance across the four disease areas. The intention is to ensure that limited funding and staffing are directed toward approaches with the greatest impact, and that programs are structured in a way that can be sustained and scaled over time.

Workforce development is explicitly called out as a priority because infrastructure improvements are limited without trained people to run systems and deliver services. The FOA supports building the public health workforce through training and education, which can include strengthening skills in surveillance, epidemiology, program management, laboratory practices, clinical linkages, outreach, and integrated service delivery. For remote settings where recruitment and retention can be difficult, developing local expertise is a key long-term strategy.

Laboratory capacity building is another major component. The FOA recognizes that limited lab capacity affects diagnosis, surveillance, and timely public health response. Funding is aimed at improving public health laboratory capability to support testing and confirmation related to HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB, along with the associated quality systems and operational capacity needed to keep testing reliable and accessible across dispersed islands. Stronger lab systems also support better surveillance, since accurate and timely lab results are often the backbone of case detection and trend monitoring.

Beyond systems-level improvements, the opportunity includes support for enhanced prevention, care, follow-up, and treatment activities tied to each disease area. The integrated structure is meant to strengthen the full continuum from prevention and screening to linkage, treatment, and ongoing follow-up, especially where distance and limited service availability can lead to delays or loss to follow-up. By strengthening these pathways, the FOA aims to reduce transmission, improve individual health outcomes, and prevent complications from untreated or late-treated infections.

A practical goal of the FOA is administrative simplification. CDC framed this as an integrated funding opportunity intended to reduce the administrative burden that comes from managing multiple cooperative agreements. By consolidating the application and award process and streamlining reporting requirements, the opportunity aims to free up time and capacity within local health agencies and partners so they can focus more on implementation and results rather than duplicative grant management tasks.

In terms of basic grant details, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning recipients should expect substantial involvement and technical assistance from CDC compared with a standard grant. The funding opportunity number is CDC RFA PS18-1801, with CFDA number 93.116, and it falls under the health funding activity category. The anticipated scale includes up to six awards, with an award ceiling listed at $1,000,000. The original posting information shows a creation date of August 1, 2017, and an original application closing date of October 2, 2017, with electronic applications due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.

Eligibility is broad and includes many entity types, such as various levels of government, public and private institutions of higher education, tribal governments and organizations, nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status, for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and other entities as allowed by the FOA. The wide eligibility reflects the reality that public health delivery in the USAPI may rely on a mix of health departments, hospitals, community-based organizations, academic partners, and other stakeholders capable of building capacity and delivering integrated services.

Overall, the opportunity is aimed at helping USAPI jurisdictions modernize and coordinate their public health infrastructure across HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB, with a strong emphasis on integration, better data and surveillance, stronger labs, trained workforces, effective planning and policy, and streamlined grant administration. The end goal is improved prevention, faster diagnosis, better treatment and follow-up, and measurable reductions in disease burden across these islands despite the logistical challenges of distance, dispersion, and limited local capacity.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - NCHHSTP in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Accelerating the Prevention and Control of HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STDs and TB in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.116.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 01, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 02, 2017 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., EST, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification), Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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