Ed Newman appointed as GOARN Steering Committee Co-Chair

Dr Ed Newman, Director of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) has recently been elected as co-deputy chair of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) Steering Committee.

UK-PHRST deploys experts to support Africa CDC mpox response

The UK-PHRST has deployed two of its experts to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to support Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) in its response to the ongoing mpox epidemic.

Green for go: UK-PHRST joins international teams to test-run co-deploying mobile lab equipment and expertise

The Rapid Response Mobile Lab (RRML) Network – a community of practice of lab specialists and experts created by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) – recently set about creating, testing and refining a common set of RRML Minimum Operational Standards. As a part of the RRML Network, the UK-Public Health Rapid Support Team took part in the first ever Interregional Field Simulation Exercise (IFX): a three-part exercise to review and test the proposed minimum standards across the whole RRML life cycle, from pre-deployment, during outbreak response and end-of-mission phases. Here are the highlights, challenges and learnings from the three-part exercise.