PublicHealthMatters

Scientist using a blow torch to seal an ampule with a bacterial sample inside Within the UK Health Security Agency lies a scientific treasure trove, known as the Culture Collections. Its 4 repositories house thousands of meticulously preserved microorganisms, with some specimens dating back to World War 1 and the late 19th Century. At their heart is … Read more

From 6 April 2025, we’re expanding the list of pathogens that Registered Medical Professionals and laboratories in England must notify us about. The changes will strengthen local and national surveillance and support a prompt response to outbreaks of infectious diseases. In this blog post, we will provide more information on the changes and important links. … Read more

In this blog post we take a behind-the-scenes look at the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL), where our scientists work to safeguard public health from rare and deadly diseases. Our laboratories RIPL is the UK’s frontline clinical diagnostic laboratory for unusual, rare, and hazardous infections, particularly those imported from abroad. Every day, our scientists … Read more

Lassa virus under a microscope. Image courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention You may have seen media reports about a person who travelled to the UK who was ill with Lassa fever while in the country. While Lassa fever is rare in the UK, we have previous experience with a small number of … Read more

If you are interested in skincare, beauty and wellness, you might know of influencer Andrew Donaldson-Wheatcroft, who has well over 200,000 followers on his social media accounts. Alongside this content, Andrew is an advocate for people living with HIV. In this blog post, he shares the story of his HIV diagnosis. Before I was diagnosed … Read more

Meningococcal group C (MenC) disease cases are down by 99% since the vaccination programme was introduced by UKHSA and NHS England in 1999, but the fight against the deadly diseases that cause meningitis and septicaemia continues. In 2018, Becca Heritage was a young university student studying general medicine, with the ambition to become an NHS … Read more

Lots of people were interested in reading about protecting their health in 2024 – around a million people in fact.   This was the number of readers who came to our blog in the last year for advice and information on a huge range of topics, from tick bites to vomiting bugs. In December, our blog … Read more

We see cases of flu, RSV, COVID-19 and norovirus throughout the year, but in winter they circulate at the same time and can reach high levels.   We also track other respiratory viruses – rhinovirus, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus (hMPV) and parainfluenza – that can also peak over the autumn and winter months.   Flu, COVID-19 and … Read more

In a lab in Porton Down, scientists are growing human organs on tiny cassette-like chips to help accelerate the development of new drugs, therapeutic medicines and vaccines. These replica organ systems were first pioneered for human drug toxicity assessments, but are now being developed for use in cancer, radiation, chemical exposure and infectious disease research. … Read more

As we release data showing a significant rise in travel-related infections like dengue and malaria, we speak to Colin Johnston, Senior Medical Entomologist at UKHSA, about his team’s work on invasive mosquito surveillance. Read on to find out how we are monitoring our borders for disease-carrying insects. Can you explain what you do? I am … Read more