The Director of the Houston Health Department and the Chief Procurement Officer recommend that City Council approve a purchase order in the amount of $150,000.00 for Baylor College of Medicine. The purchase order will be effective from the date of issuance through June 30, 2019.
Under this agreement BCM will expand its current Zika diagnostic capacities to create a clinical laboratory improvement amendment (CLIA)-certified regional resource for diagnostic development, validation and testing services during both surveillance and epidemic periods. This will enable BCM to respond to large-scale needs when local, state and federal capacities can be easily exceeded.
BCM will also conduct real-time active surveillance for Zika virus among pregnant women with fever and a history of travel to an endemic area, or have a sexual partner who has a recent history of travel to an endemic area. Emphasis is to screen high-risk populations and analyze the timeliness and effectiveness of surveillance activities.
The primary objective of this work is to determine whether Zika infections occur in pregnant women who are not identified in the traditional screening process, and if so, connect those cases to the public health system.
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Stephen L. Williams, M.Ed., M.P.A.
Director, Houston Health Department
MWBE Participation:
Zero-percentage goal document approved by the Office of Business Opportunity.
Pay or Play Program:
The proposed contract requires compliance with the City's 'Pay or Play' ordinance regarding health benefits for employees of City contractors. In this case, a waiver from this requirement was approved by OBO.