London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) has deployed experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to support Africa CDC in its regional response to the ongoing mpox epidemic.

Based in Kinshasa, the UK-PHRST experts from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) include a field epidemiologist and an infection prevention and control specialist. They will work, under the direction of Africa CDC and in collaboration with other partners, to provide a wide range of technical, strategic and tactical inputs to the joint World Health Organization (WHO) Africa CDC continental incident management team. 

A recent report from the WHO estimated that there have been over 36,000 suspected cases of mpox in Africa since the beginning of 2024, resulting in almost 1,000 deaths. 

Dr Ed Newman, UK-PHRST director, said: “The UK Public Health Rapid Support team ensures that our expertise in tackling infectious disease outbreaks is rapidly available to support countries who are responding to public health emergencies.

“Our staff will provide specialist support to colleagues at Africa CDC and the joint continental incident management team as they work to manage the ongoing mpox epidemic, as well as using this learning to further strengthen UK preparedness.”

Formed in the wake of the 2014-15 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the UK-PHRST is an innovative partnership between the UKHSA and LSHTM, funded with UK aid by the UK Department of Health and Social Care. The team partners with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to support them in their response to infectious disease outbreaks.

The UK-PHRST comprises a core team of experts ready to deploy overseas rapidly and at short notice to countries responding to infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies. The deployable team includes experts in a diverse range of expertise including epidemiology, microbiology, infection prevention and control specialists, risk communications and community engagement experts, mental health and psychosocial support and social scientists.

Deployment of the UK-PHRST is at the invitation of the host government or in response to requests made by multinational partners such as Africa CDC, the WHO or via the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN).

In recent years UK-PHRST has deployed staff to countries across Africa – including the Democratic Republic of the Congo – to support a range of infectious disease outbreak responses, including Ebola, cholera and yellow fever outbreaks.

The UK-PHRST has worked closely with Africa CDC for almost a decade to support the creation of its own public health response team – the Africa Volunteer Health Corps.

Read more in the UK government press release.