India project 386-0492 · 1992–1993 · health systems, policy and finance · Management Sciences for Health (MSH)

PACR of a project (7/85-8/92) to establish a laboratory-based field epidemiology program in India. Initial progress was slow due to structural problems and bureaucratic delays, although good work was done by WHO consultants in developing a basic epidemiological curriculum, procuring laboratory equipment (including AIDS equipment), and upgrading laboratory procedures; USAID should seek where appropriate to involve WHO in future efforts, especially those involving equipment procurement. In 1988, the project was thoroughly revised: the field epidemiology and laboratory support components were combined into one; the management information system for malaria component was dropped; and the quality control of biologicals component eventually evolved into the Quality Control of Health Technologies project. The revised project made remarkable progress in its last 2 years, accomplishing 80% of its original objectives, most of them in a sustainable manner. Under the aegis of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the field epidemiology and laboratory component created a 3-tiered (central-state-district) laboratory-based epidemiological service in the pilot States of Rajasthan and Utta

Source: DEC abstract, PD-ABJ-757 (1993). The source's own text.