ASEM and HURRA to receive up to $500,000 each to prepare for Ebola and other high-risk pathogens

Puerto Rico's Department of Health confirmed that two hospitals — the Administracion de Servicios Medicos (ASEM), which runs the Centro Medico complex in San Juan, and Hospital Universitario Dr. Ramon Ruiz Arnau (HURRA), in Bayamon — have been selected to receive up to $500,000 each in federal funding aimed at strengthening the island's capacity to identify, isolate, and treat high-consequence infectious diseases, including Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) ¹².

Health Secretary Victor M. Ramos Otero made the announcement on September 24, calling it a milestone for Puerto Rico's health system. "This selection represents an important step for Puerto Rico. For the first time, two institutions on our Island receive these funds" to develop specialized capabilities for managing high-consequence infectious diseases, he said ¹³.

Background: what this program is and why it exists

The funding comes from the National Special Pathogen System (NSPS) Level 2 Special Pathogen Treatment and Network Development (STAND) Awards, a federal program coordinated by the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) under the umbrella of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ¹². The program's goal is to build, in hospitals outside the major national reference centers, the clinical capacity to safely treat patients with pathogens that require special isolation protocols — a gap that became painfully evident during the West African Ebola outbreaks of the past decade, when very few hospitals in the mainland United States, and none in the Caribbean, had the infrastructure to receive a suspected case without putting staff at risk ¹.

ASEM and HURRA now join a network of 21 institutions selected nationwide in this second round of the program, making Puerto Rico the only Caribbean jurisdiction with two hospitals inside that network ²³.

The key numbers and dates

• Amount: up to $500,000 per institution, meaning up to $1 million combined between ASEM and HURRA ¹².
• Execution period: September 1, 2026 through June 29, 2027 — roughly ten months of work ¹²³.
• Institutions selected nationwide: 21, in the second round of the NSPS Level 2 STAND Awards ¹².
• Areas the funds can be used for: infrastructure and specialized equipment, clinical and laboratory preparedness, staff training, development of operational processes, and sustainability of the capabilities built ¹²⁴.
• Additional technical support (at no extra cost): assistance from NETEC and the network of Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers (RESPTCs), including training, assessment tools, simulation exercises, and expert consultations ²⁴.

Dr. Regino Colon Alsina, ASEM's executive director, said "these resources will allow us to keep developing specialized capabilities and strengthen our infrastructure" at the Centro Medico, the island's largest referral hospital ². CDR Sandra Carpio, director of ASPR's Caribbean office, added that the grant "will expand Puerto Rico's capacity to care for patients with these diseases and protect health care workers" ².

What this means for you

For most Puerto Rican families, this changes nothing about daily life: there is no active Ebola or MERS outbreak on the island, and this funding is about preparedness, not response to an ongoing emergency ¹. But it does matter for everyone's safety net — especially if you travel outside Puerto Rico or host visitors from regions where these pathogens circulate.

Before this announcement, if someone arrived at a Puerto Rican hospital with symptoms consistent with a high-consequence disease, the typical protocol was to stabilize the patient and transfer them to a mainland U.S. reference center — a process that costs critical hours. With this investment, the Centro Medico and HURRA — two hospitals that already handle the island's most complex cases — will build the capacity to safely isolate and treat such a patient locally from the first moment, while coordinating any further transfer if needed ¹².

It's also a signal that staff at those two hospitals will receive additional, specific training in handling high-consequence pathogens, which reduces the risk of exposure for nurses, doctors, and cleaning staff who care for these patients ²⁴.

How to act / Checklist

1. If you travel to a region with an active outbreak (parts of Central Africa, the Middle East), check the CDC's travel alerts before leaving Puerto Rico ⁴.
2. If you return from a risk area and develop high fever, unusual bleeding, or severe respiratory symptoms, tell emergency room staff explicitly as soon as you arrive so they can activate the appropriate isolation protocol ¹.
3. If you work in health care at ASEM or HURRA, watch for internal calls for training on special pathogens that will be announced throughout the project's execution period (September 2026 to June 2027) ²³.
4. If you're a journalist or community leader, you can request public updates on how these funds are used through the Department of Health's press office, since this is federal money with accountability requirements ¹.
5. Check your nearest hospital's status: not every hospital on the island has this expanded capacity yet; so far, only the Centro Medico in San Juan and HURRA in Bayamon are part of this specialized network ¹².

What's next

Between October 2026 and June 2027, ASEM and HURRA must complete the project's five phases: acquiring infrastructure and equipment, clinical and laboratory preparedness, staff training, operational development, and consolidating the sustainability of these new capabilities ¹². NETEC and the RESPTC network will carry out assessments and simulation exercises throughout that period to certify that both hospitals meet national standards for special pathogen management ²⁴. The Department of Health has not yet announced whether it will seek additional funding to extend this capacity to a third hospital in the island's western or southern region, but Puerto Rico's status as the only Caribbean jurisdiction with two centers in this network raises the odds the island will be considered for future rounds of the program ¹³.

Sources

1. Puerto Rico Department of Health — Secretary of Health announces ASEM and HURRA will receive funds to strengthen preparedness for emerging infectious diseases and agents
2. Metro Puerto Rico — ASEM and HURRA to receive funds to strengthen response to infectious diseases
3. El Nuevo Dia — ASEM and Bayamon hospital to receive funds to respond to high-risk infectious diseases
4. eyBoricua — ASEM and HURRA receive funds to combat infectious diseases