The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has launched its three-year strategy to combat both new and re-emerging threats and to protect health security.
The new strategy sets out UKHSA’s vision and goals to prepare for and respond to health threats and build the capabilities and technologies to protect the country in the future. The UKHSA says that, while the COVID-19 pandemic has been a reminder of the catastrophic impact that health hazards can have on our lives and livelihoods, it has also shown the great strides that can be made when government, industry, and academia work together, developing innovative solutions and harnessing the power of data and scientific insight to drive policy and response.
However, it adds that: "New and emerging diseases, increased global movement and environmental change are already amplifying the health security challenges which the UK and the global community are facing. These threats, and others, are set to rise in coming years."
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently identified antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top 10 global public health threats – there were just under 5 million deaths associated with bacterial AMR in 2019, and this figure is predicted to double by 2050.
Exposure to environmental hazards, including chemicals, radiation, adverse weather and natural disasters results in significant ill-health and loss of life, as well as impacts on the economy and wider society. There were estimated to be almost 3,000 excess deaths during a short period of heatwaves in England in 2022. Meanwhile, air pollution contributes to up to 43,000 deaths in the UK each year and causes a range of long-term conditions, with many deprived communities disproportionately affected.
Novel and emerging diseases, like mpox and AH5N1 avian influenza, and increasing global movement exacerbate the risk of imported diseases, highlighting the need for robust pandemic preparedness plans.
Childhood immunisation rates are at their lowest in a decade – to the extent that there is a risk that serious childhood diseases eliminated in the UK could resurge. Polio virus traces recently detected in London sewerage indicate that there are susceptible populations in the UK for the first time since 1984.
The six strategic priorities for UKHSA laid out in the strategy are to:
1. Be ready to respond to all hazards to health
It will ensure the UK has the right plans, expertise, infrastructure, capabilities, and countermeasures in place to mount agile and resilient responses to health security threats, including pandemics, working across the health system to develop capability for scalability and robust planning.
2. Improve health outcomes through vaccines
It will harness UKHSA’s strengths across the whole vaccine pathway to facilitate innovation in the development of safe and effective vaccines, ensuring reliable procurement and increasing uptake among the population, thereby reducing the burden of infectious disease.
3. Reduce the impact of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance
It will harness science, analytical and operational expertise to minimise the impact of infectious disease, with a focus over the next three years on COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance and progression of elimination targets for bloodborne viruses and tuberculosis (TB).
4. Protect health from threats in the environment
It will protect the population from the health effects of environmental, chemical, radiological and nuclear incidents of any scale by improving planning and preparedness and providing public health expertise to inform policy and response.
5. Improve action on health security through data and insight
It will maximise its partnerships and the health impact of the data it holds, the evidence it generates and the insights it draws, to be a leader in safe and regulated handling and use of public health data, analytics and surveillance.
6. Develop UKHSA as a high-performing agency
It will ensure UKHSA is ready to prepare for and respond to health security challenges by investing in people and culture; partnerships and relationships; data, science and research and operational excellence.
Dame Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of UKHSA, commented: “The dangers that emerging and re-emerging pathogens, environmental threats, and extreme climate pose to health should not be underestimated. It is absolutely vital that the UK’s public health protection infrastructure and scientific expertise are equal to the challenge.
“Through this strategic plan, UKHSA will continue to work across government, academia, and the private and voluntary sectors to keep the public safe and ensure that the UK is in the best possible position to respond to the hazards that we will face in coming years.”
