Welcome to the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) Knowledge Hub, for everyone interested in responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases. It provides an online meeting place where researchers and policy makers can share resources, evidence and discuss best practice to support response to outbreaks in low and middle income countries.
10 August 2026
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has been selected to lead the research arm of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) to continue to help respond to global health emergencies.
Building on nearly a decade of collaborative research between UKHSA and LSHTM since UK-PHRST was established in 2016, the expanded partnership brings together world-leading expertise in epidemic preparedness and response, with a central commitment to shared leadership between UK and low- and middle-income country (LMIC) institutions.
16 June 2026
UK-PHRST is deploying 7 public health specialists from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to support the international response to the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and across the region. Additionally, UKHSA together with continued funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) also announced the renewal and expansion of the academic partnership underpinning the UK-PHRST more broadly.
18 May 2026
As part of the wider UK Government response to the hantavirus outbreak, the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (a partnership between LSHTM and the UK Health Security Agency), has deployed a rapid response mobile laboratory (RRML) and three UKHSA staff members to the British Overseas Territory of St Helena.
UK-PHRST and Africa CDC's joint study to evaluate how international public health deployments strengthen national outbreak preparedness and response capabilities across African Union member states has shared 15 co-developed recommendations to strengthen the impact of future deployments, create sustainable change and outline the conditions that support the most effective outcomes.
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New ethnographic toolkit to facilitate community workshops and focus group discussions which can be adapted for use in any disease outbreak. The toolkit has been developed as part of a study to track online and offline rumours and concerns about COVID-19 to better understand their mechanisms and influence, and to identify solutions to address community concerns during health emergencies.
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The UK-PHRST and Partners' Learning Review 2024 Report highlights case studies where our work has achieved real impact that arose during a three-day learning session in Nairobi in June 2024.
The report also provides 20 recommendations for improved future ways of working and includes UK-PHRST senior leadership responses showing the actions that the UK-PHRST is committed to taking as a result.
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