WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services has tapped Fairfax, Va.-based Z-Tech to provide technical assistance in setting up networks to help the government's fight against AIDS.

The three-year contract is for $4 million.

Z-Tech, a subsidiary of ICF International, will provide regionally based technical assistance and training to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Z-Tech provides life-cycle services in grants management, bioinformatics, scientific computing, modeling and simulation, software engineering, Web design and development and health technology solutions.

Under the HHS contract, Z-Tech will:

• establish a targeted nationwide health promotion and disease prevention network;
• establish partnerships at the community level to promote disease awareness and testing, as well as activities to reduce the stigma associated with these diseases;
• and provide HIV/AIDS and STD awareness and disease prevention training to high school and college students, training them on methods for passing prevention messages on to their peers.

"ICF's expert national network of public health professionals is well-versed in the complex issues surrounding HIV/AIDS and STDs," said Ellen Glover, ICF's executive vice president. "This expertise, combined with considerable experience working with HHS, other federal health agencies and leading AIDS/HIV organizations, as well as our proven experience operating regionally-based technical assistance programs for HHS, will ensure that ICF meets the programmatic goals of this important mission."