Factors that support public health infrastructure recovery in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

This paper describes the factors that support recovery of public health infrastructure (PHI), including conditions that facilitated or hindered recovery in United States (US) territories impacted by hurricanes Irma and Maria. A deductive approach was used to categorize data from five organizations that received crisis hurricane recovery (CHR) funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.* Spending was grouped into five infrastructure gaps: (1) human resources, (2) informatic upgrades, (3) equipment, (4) minor repairs, and (5) preventive maintenance. Unanticipated PHI costs, facilitators, and hinderances to PHI recovery were identified. Most (72 percent) of the $53,529,823 CHR funding was used to address infrastructure gaps in (1) human resources (56 percent), (2) informatics (16 percent), (3) equipment (13 percent), (4) minor repairs (10 percent), and (5) preventive maintenance (5 percent). Most of the requests (56 percent) to redirect funds were associated with unanticipated costs in initial work plans and budgets. The use of administrative partners, planning tools, dedicated staff, streamlined procedures, eg, contracts, and cost sharing facilitated PHI recovery. The most common hindrance to PHI recovery were delays in procurement and shipping. In summary, investments in dedicated funding to upgrade, repair, or replace critical structures and systems for infectious disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, vector control, environmental health inspections, and vaccine storage and administration in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands after Hurricanes Irma and Maria contributed to their recovery capacity. These findings may inform funding and resource allocation considerations for PHI recovery in the US territories.

Adapting the popular opinion leader intervention for Latino young migrant men who have sex with men.

Young Latino migrantmen who have sex with men are at high risk for HIV infection. The Popular Opinion Leader intervention, shown to be effective with White gay men, was adapted by the Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc., for this Latino migrant population. This project, called the Young Latino Promotores, was implemented over a 2-year period by community-based organizations in Vista, California, and McAllen, Texas, with capacity building assistance from the Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc. We report on challenges, preliminary findings, and lessons learned from adapting this intervention.

The evolution of the CDC HIV prevention capacity-building assistance initiative.

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic neared the end of its first decade in the late 1980s, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognized the disparate impact on racial and ethnic minority communities. In response, a program was initiated to build capacity to prevent the further spread of HIV and other STDs in these communities. Since that time, the program has expanded in scope, intensity of efforts, and funding. Today, the CDC's Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) Initiative serves communities across the nation by building community, organizational, and HIV prevention program/intervention capacity designed to reduce the number of new HIV infections among at-risk populations. This article focuses on the history and evolution of these efforts, lessons learned, and how these were used to develop the current, more responsive system. A conceptual framework is presented that describes the taxonomy of CBA services designed to (1) enhance organizational infrastructure; (2) enhance HIV prevention interventions; (3) strengthen community capacity; and (4) strengthen community planning. It includes language and definitions, approaches and mechanisms for delivering capacity-building services, and a Web-based request-and-referral system that serves as the foundation for tracking, monitoring, and ensuring the delivery of appropriate, efficient, and culturally competent CBA.