Independent report

Global Health Security Agenda: pilot assessment of the UK

International expert team’s assessment of UK’s health protection services against the standards and targets set out under the GHSA.

Documents

Virtual Surveillance Network

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UK current animal population

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Details

The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is a US-led initiative to make progress, through international collaboration, toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease and other health threats. It also aims to promote global health security as an international priority.

The UK volunteered to pilot an assessment tool designed to assess how countries are performing against the national actions and targets set out in 11 action packages spanning prevention, detection and response preparedness.

The main objective was to assess the usefulness of the assessment tool and the GHSA targets, with a view to using the UK experience of applying the tool to make proposals for improving it. The pilot also aimed to use the tool to describe and review structures and functions in the UK which are essential for preventing, detecting and responding to infectious disease and other threats to health. The UK is one of 5 assessment sites across the world.

This report follows a self-assessment and a week-long assessment visit to the UK in June 2015 by a panel of international experts. The report concludes that, overall, the UK has demonstrated a strong baseline position across all areas. One key area of strength was the cross-government and organisational coordination and response to the Ebola crisis.

Published 27 August 2015