UK creates specialist team for global disease, infection outbreaks
The UK has put together a global response team of health experts and specialists who can be sent to any part of the globe within 48 hours in the event of a disease or infection outbreak. The objective is to extinguish outbreaks of diseases, such as Ebola, before they spread wider.
If there are no immediate emergencies to respond to, the team of scientists, academics and clinicians will spend their time assessing future disease threats and training colleagues from home and abroad.
The rapid response team will be funded by £20 million from the government over the course of five years. UK’s Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said the Ebola crisis highlighted the need for such a team.
“Ebola shook the world and brave experts from the UK led the global response in Sierra Leone. The ability to deploy emergency support to investigate and respond to disease outbreaks within 48 hours will save lives, prevent further outbreaks and cement the UK’s position as a leader in global health security.”
The project will be run by Public Health England (PHE) along with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said: “Speed is key in tackling infectious disease and with this new capability we can now deploy specialists anywhere in the world within 48 hours, saving and protecting lives where an outbreak starts and helping to keep the UK safe at home.”
The team is led by Brian Mc Closkey, interim director of the Rapid support team, Director of Global Public Health at PHE, and Prof. Jimmy Whitworth, professor of International Public Health at LSHTM, interim deputy director and academic lead for the team.
Two of the eight core deployable roles have been announced. The two team members are Hilary Bower, research fellow in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the LSHTM, and Dr. Thomas Waite, consultant epidemiologist at PHE.
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