The United Kingdom recently created a UK Public Health Rapid Response Team to respond to outbreaks and public health emergencies anywhere in the world within 48 hours.
The team’s development comes in response to the deadly Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, which claimed more than 11,000 lives to date. The UK government said the crisis highlighted the need for the international community to develop a system to help countries respond to and control disease outbreaks that pose a serious threat before the disease affects the global community.
The United Kingdom made £20 million available to fund the team over a five year period. The team will be jointly run by Public Health England and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“Ebola shook the world and brave experts from the UK led the global response in Sierra Leone,” Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood said. “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 team will focus on research of how to tackle various types of outbreaks when not responding to a specific threat. Additionally, the team will train public health reservists to ensure they have the appropriate numbers to scale up response efforts if needed.
“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,” Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said.