Infectious disease outbreaks have become more frequent with devastating effects, from loss of life to impacting economies and disrupting normal life. Most recently, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has reinforced the need to have a robust disease surveillance network and rapid outbreak response capability to arrest the spread of the disease and minimize the impact. Furthermore, there is a growing need for additional training to prepare for new outbreaks, such as diagnostics training. 

HJF has collaborated to support the preparation and response to COVID-19 cases through its partnerships with many programs including the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program at USU, the Naval Health Research Center, and the Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch at WRAIR. In addition to supporting diagnostics and vaccine research, it participated in observational studies to characterize clinical course of disease and biomarkers for disease progression/severity and deployment of new technologies—portable ultrasound (Lumify), microneedle blood collection (Tasso), wearable biosensors for physiologic monitoring (PhysIQ), and biomarker stratification—in the process. HJF is also involved in another collaboration to enhance understanding of natural history of COVID-19 and early indicators of infection and disease progression, as part of a sister study at civilian hospitals in Cambodia, Singapore, and Thailand. 

To address impact to antenatal and postnatal outcomes by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, HJFMRI is also studying adverse pregnancy outcomes such as miscarriage, fetal distress and preterm births that have been associated with maternal COVID-19. This study is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Partner labs and our HIV prevention, care, and treatment infrastructure developed to support PEPFAR programs were also leveraged for COVID-19 diagnostics and vaccine delivery. HJFMRI helped provide our partners with urgently needed supplies, including personal protective equipment and testing platforms.