The U.S. Army has announced intentions to award a sole source contract to the National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD), which is the national referral laboratory for respiratory disease under the Mongolian Ministry of Public Health.
The award supports services to train Mongolian Armed Forces staff in study procedures and the collection of duplicate throat and nasal swabs from patients with influenza-like illness.
Under the effort, NCCD will oversee sample storage and shipment as well as processing and PCR analysis of the duplicate of each sample to support “Estimation of the Burden of Disease of Influenza and other Respiratory Pathogens among Mongolian Armed Forces” by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
NCCD is the parent organization of the sole WHO-recognized National Influenza Center in Mongolia. As such, the NCCD is the only entity in Mongolia with the laboratory capacity and authority to conduct public health surveillance studies for respiratory pathogens.
