Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Guide To Diseas... BEST
Methods: In March 2020, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) formed a multidisciplinary guideline panel of infectious disease clinicians, pharmacists, and methodologists with varied areas of expertise to regularly review the evidence and make recommendations about the treatment and management of persons with COVID-19. The process used a living guideline approach and followed a rapid recommendation development checklist. The panel prioritized questions and outcomes. A systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature was conducted at regular intervals. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence and make recommendations.
Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Guide to Diseas...
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic with a rapidly increasing incidence of infections and deaths. Many pharmacologic therapies are being used or considered for treatment. Given the rapidity of emerging literature, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) identified the need to develop living, frequently updated evidence-based guidelines to support patients, clinicians and other health-care professionals in their decisions about treatment and management of patients with COVID-19. Please refer to the IDSA website for the latest version of the guidelines:
Given the rapid global spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the difficulty for the overburdened front-line providers and policymakers to stay up to date on emerging literature, IDSA has recognized the necessity of developing a rapid guideline for the treatment of COVID-19. The guideline panel is using a methodologically rigorous process for evaluating the best available evidence and providing treatment recommendations. These guidelines will be frequently updated as substantive literature becomes available and are accessible on an easy to navigate web and device interface at
There continue to be several ongoing trials evaluating therapeutic agents for the treatment of COVID-19. As data becomes available from these trials and if there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest the use of a therapeutic agent even in the context of clinical trials is no longer warranted it will be removed from future updates of the guideline (and the removal will be noted in the updated guidelines). If there is emerging evidence on the efficacy or safety of a therapeutic agent not mentioned in the current version of the guideline it will be included in future updates of the guideline.
The initial guideline panel assembled in March 2020 was composed of nine members including infectious diseases specialists as well as experts in public health as well as other front-line clinicians, specializing in pharmacology, pediatrics, medical microbiology, preventive care, critical care, hepatology, nephrology and gastroenterology. Organizational representatives were included from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS). In May 2020, an additional panel member was included as a representative from the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP). One member rotated off the panel in March of 2022 and replaced by a Pediatric ID specialist and an adult ID specialist with expertise in antiviral drug resistance testing. The Evidence Foundation provided technical support and guideline methodologists for the development of this guideline.
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to establish a coordinated network of Emerging Infectious Disease Research Centers (EIDRCs) in regions around the globe where emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks are likely to occur. Multidisciplinary teams of investigators will conduct pathogen/host surveillance, study pathogen transmission, pathogenesis and immunologic responses in the host, and will develop reagents and diagnostic assays for improved detection for important emerging pathogens and their vectors.
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to establish a coordinated network of Emerging Infectious Disease Research Centers (EIDRCs) in regions around the globe where emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks are likely to occur. Multidisciplinary teams of investigators will conduct pathogen/host surveillance, study pathogen transmission, including evaluating zoonotic hosts and reservoirs, study pathogenesis and immunologic responses in the host, and will develop reagents and diagnostic assays for improved detection for important emerging pathogens and their vectors. These EIDRC will conduct research project(s) and will collaborate under the direction of a separate EIDRC Coordinating Center (EIDRC CC, RFA-AI-19-029), to develop and formulate strategies for detecting, controlling and preventing emergence or re-emergence of infectious diseases. Rapid translation of these findings to development of reagents, diagnostic tools, etc. that will be provided to downstream partners to advance therapeutic and preventive interventions is key.
This FOA and its companion, will serve as important components of the broader NIAID strategy for pandemic preparedness by establishing infrastructure and scientific expertise in geographical regions of the world that are prone to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. These Centers will draw on skills from teams of multidisciplinary scientists, including infectious disease clinicians, epidemiologists, virologists, clinical microbiologists, veterinarians, and entomologists, to conduct field studies of endemic diseases that have the greatest potential of becoming pandemic threats, such as zoonotic and vector-borne viruses, develop reagents for the broader research community and have the flexibility and ability to re-direct work among the EIDRC in the event of an outbreak to mount a rapid and effective research response.
The Emerging Infectious Diseases Program comprised of the EIDRC CC and the EIDRCs, is designed to improve our knowledge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, complement and leverage existing NIAID international research efforts when possible, and allow NIAID to develop the flexibility and capacity to respond rapidly and effectively to outbreaks where they occur. The program as a whole is designed to improve our knowledge of the natural history, incidence, and prevalence of emerging/re-emerging infectious diseases. In many instances, re-emerging pathogens circulate at low levels for several years before breaking out and causing major public health problems, in other cases new pathogens emerge rapidly.
Research activities at the centers may include pathogen discovery; surveillance in humans, animal reservoirs, and vectors as it relates to assessment of prevalence and molecular epidemiology of specific pathogens in their geographic regions; evaluation of factors related to transmission, emergence and adaptation to new hosts; natural history of infection and contemporary clinical disease in humans as well as immunologic responses to the infection; development of reagents, new diagnostic methods for improved detection of infectious agents, and development of appropriate animal models, if/when necessary. Clinical cohorts with symptoms of acute infections may be used to define the pathophysiology and clinical outcomes of the infection and disease, describe the spectrum of disease presentation and severity, elucidate factors associated with disease transmission and progression, evaluate important immune responses to the emerging pathogen, determine clinical and molecular diagnostic criteria, and provide the basis for sample collection.
The EIDRCs will complement and leverage existing NIAID international research efforts- such as the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS), International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR), Tropical Medicine Research Centers (TMRC), and Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR)- and/or other US Government or internationally funded research infrastructure as needed to conduct proposed research and exhibit the flexibility to expand capacity in response to outbreaks in their geographic area, as directed by NIAID and the EIDRC CC. Each EIDRC will have the flexibility to study any emerging pathogen (viral, bacterial or eukaryotic), however, the initial focus will be on infectious pathogens that are most likely to emerge/remerge including, but not limited to: Flaviviruses, Filoviruses, Alphaviruses, Coronaviruses, Bunyaviruses, and Enteroviruses that are not already studied by other NIAID funded networks (e.g. HIV, influenza, malaria) and for which countermeasures are not developed or are sub-optimal.
Each EIDRC will have relevant scientific expertise and experience working in one or more geographic areas located within the tropical or subtropical regions of the world (Tropics: latitude between 23.5o -Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn-Subtropics: between tropic and temperate zones (35-66.5o N and S of the equator) with the goal to establish multiple sites in targeted areas of the globe such as South and Central America, West/Central Africa and Southeast Asia. In an effort to train the next generation of investigators, develop expertise in emerging infectious disease research and expand regional capacity in these countries, the centers will be required to conduct a pilot project research program, that will be coordinated, including the awarding of projects, by the EIDRC CC.
Specific Aims: List in priority order, the broad, long-range objectives and goals of the proposed research including surveillance, transmission, pathogenesis and immunologic responses in the host, and reagent and diagnostic assay development for improved detection for important emerging pathogens and their vectors and indicate how these goals will be accomplished. Concisely describe the hypothesis or hypotheses to be tested with an initial emphasis on RNA viruses and plans for incorporation of other pathogens and emerging infectious diseases. Indicate how the work proposed dovetails to address the overall goals and objectives of the research. 041b061a72