Surveillance, intervention, and referral to services activities for infants with microcephaly or other adverse outcomes linked with the Zika virus-High Risk Local Areas | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), provided FY 2016 funding to certain high-risk local areas to strengthen the public health response to birth outcomes potentially associated with Zika virus infection during pregnancy. The focus was on quickly building or expanding local capacity to identify, track, and respond to cases of microcephaly and other serious adverse outcomes, with a strong emphasis on central nervous system (CNS) defects. Rather than supporting academic or hypothesis-driven research, the program was framed as a non-research, public health action effort: rapidly finding cases, compiling usable surveillance data, and using that information to guide monitoring, prevention, intervention, and service referral.

The core purpose of the award was to help local health departments establish, enhance, and maintain rapid, population-based surveillance systems capable of capturing cases in near real time. Importantly, the surveillance approach specified in the announcement was active case-finding, meaning health departments were expected to proactively identify cases through direct outreach to clinical and reporting sources (such as hospitals, birthing facilities, pediatric specialty clinics, imaging centers, and medical records systems) rather than relying only on passive reporting. This active approach was intended to improve completeness and speed of case ascertainment during a fast-moving public health threat, ensuring that emerging patterns in microcephaly and related defects could be detected and understood quickly.

Beyond identifying cases locally, the opportunity also required participation in centralized pooled clinical and surveillance data projects. In practical terms, this meant awardees would contribute standardized information to broader, coordinated CDC efforts so that data from multiple high-risk jurisdictions could be combined and analyzed together. Pooling data strengthens situational awareness by increasing the number of cases available for evaluation, improving the ability to describe the range of outcomes potentially linked to Zika, and supporting more consistent definitions and reporting practices across jurisdictions. It also helps CDC and partners generate clearer national-level insights while still grounding the work in local public health practice.

A major component of the program was ensuring that infants and families affected by microcephaly or other qualifying adverse outcomes were referred to appropriate services. This reflects the practical public health expectation that surveillance is not only about counting cases but also about connecting people to help. Referral activities could include linking families to early intervention programs, developmental evaluation services, specialty medical care, social services, and other community resources. The intent was that identification through surveillance would translate into timely support for children and families, particularly because neurodevelopmental impacts can require ongoing care coordination and early therapeutic engagement.

The opportunity also emphasized assessing the health and developmental outcomes of impacted children over time. This signals that awardees were expected to do more than initial case identification at birth; they were also expected to contribute to follow-up understanding of how children develop and what health needs emerge. Tracking developmental outcomes helps public health and clinical systems anticipate service needs, refine guidance for pediatric follow-up, and better characterize the longer-term impact of congenital infections or related birth defects. It also supports more informed planning for early childhood supports in communities experiencing elevated risk.

Coordination was another explicit expectation. Local health departments were instructed to align activities under this funding announcement with the overall state Zika response as appropriate. This matters because surveillance, laboratory testing, vector control, prenatal guidance, and clinical follow-up efforts often involve multiple levels of government and multiple programs. Coordinating locally funded surveillance and referral work with state response plans helps reduce duplication, improves consistency in messaging and methods, and ensures that local findings feed into broader situational reporting and response decisions.

Administratively, this was a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, which generally indicates substantial involvement by the CDC in technical guidance, coordination, and program oversight compared with a more hands-off grant. Eligible applicants were county governments and city or township governments, reflecting the focus on local jurisdictions that may be on the front lines of identifying affected infants and organizing referral pathways. The opportunity was listed under CFDA 93.073 and offered an award ceiling of $720,000, with an expectation of five awards. The funding opportunity number was CDC RFA DD16-1606, created July 20, 2016, with an original closing date of August 22, 2016, and a stated electronic submission deadline of 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.

Overall, the grant was designed to quickly strengthen local birth defects surveillance capacity during the Zika emergency, generate higher-quality and more timely population-based data through active case-finding, contribute to coordinated multi-jurisdictional data efforts, and ensure that identified infants and families were not only documented but also connected to services and followed for health and developmental outcomes. It directly aligned with NCBDDDs performance goal of enhancing birth defects surveillance, research, and prevention, while remaining clearly positioned as a non-research public health surveillance and intervention support initiative.

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