NIH’s termination of the CREID network halted A2CARES, a multi-country research effort to detect and response to dengue, Zika, and other arboviruses across the Americas and Asia.
Chapel Hill, NC
Ann Arbor, MI
Atlanta, GA
San Francisco, CA
New York, NY
Ecuador
Nicaragua
Sri Lanka
When NIH terminated the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) network in June 2025, it ended support for the American and Asian Centers for Arboviral Research and Enhanced Surveillance (A2CARES), led by the University of California, Berkeley, cutting off a multi-regional effort to strengthen detection and response to arboviral diseases in Asia and the Americas. A2CARES operated as an interconnected network of clinical and laboratory sites in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and the United States, which implemented advanced surveillance and diagnostic methods and established standardized hospital and cohort studies to both monitor and identify pathogens and yield new insights into factors that affect their spread across environments that vary in urbanization and ecology. Its pathogen priorities included dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, reflecting outbreak risks in these regions. The termination disrupted this model, weakening partnerships and infrastructure intended to generate knowledge and capacity to strengthen outbreak prevention and response.
The CREID network was established by NIH in 2020 to build outbreak-ready surveillance and research capacity in regions where emerging epidemics are most likely to occur. Through nine research centers, a coordinating center, and more than 100 sites worldwide, CREID linked multidisciplinary teams to study disease transmission dynamics, strengthen local preparedness, and develop improved tools and early warning systems. Its capabilities supported responses to COVID-19 and to outbreaks of Lassa fever, mpox, and other high-consequence pathogens. By operating as a coordinated network, CREID enabled faster sharing of data, specimens, methods, and technical expertise—capabilities that individual projects often cannot sustain. When the centers were terminated in June 2025, the loss was not just individual centers, but a coordinated early-warning and response architecture that supported partners abroad and US preparedness at home.
A2CARES was led by the University of California, Berkeley with US partners including the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI); Emory University (Atlanta, GA), the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, CA), and Columbia University (New York, NY), and other collaborators across Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Sri Lanka.