The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response said it will support the collection of blood samples from people in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico who have been infected with Zika virus, in an effort to speed the development of diagnostic tests. Under a six-month, $692,000 project funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Clinical Research Management Inc., of Hinckley, Ohio, will collect blood samples from people who have had confirmed Zika virus infection, in coordination with state and local health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those samples will be collected and made available to diagnostic companies for use in validating the performance of their tests.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Board of Governors approved $44.4 million in funding for 21 new patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research studies. The funds will support projects on a range of conditions and problems including post-partum depression, misuse of antibiotics, post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans and joint replacement, among others.