Posts about the work of the Health Protection directorate
The outbreak of Zika virus in South and Central America, and the Caribbean, has attracted widespread media coverage with particular focus on an apparent increase in the number of babies born with microcephaly (a smaller head than expected which can …
Flu is now circulating and there have been a number of national media articles recently about ‘swine flu’ cases in the UK. This blog explains why swine flu is now considered a normal, seasonal flu strain.
PHE is involved in many aspects of looking after the health of the public and one of those is preventing and reducing the risk of disasters across the globe. By disasters I mean occurrences like disease epidemics such as Ebola and …
Elisabetta Groppelli lead on PHE’s Ebola response on the ground in Sierra Leone. She was deployed to Sierra Leone to support Public Health England’s response efforts in fighting Ebola. During 2015 there was significant progress in the Ebola response. Yet, while the …
With winter upon us, I am sitting in my living room enjoying a real fire while my gas boiler is helping to heat the rest of my home. But as I am settling down to enjoy the evening, I am …
Winter is almost upon us and we have recently launched a variety of initiatives to support people to stay well and independent through the season. These include the annual seasonal flu vaccine programme, the cold weather plan for England, and …
More than five percent of ‘deaths’ in England are attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution, according to the latest data published in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF). The precise estimate is that 5.3 percent of mortality can …
Recent media coverage about Borrelia miyamotoi has prompted some questions about prevalence of the bacteria in the UK and risk to human health. In this Q&A, PHE scientists answer questions about the bacteria which has been dubbed responsible for the …
We all want the best start for our children. Protecting babies and infants from illness and disease is crucial and a key priority for PHE. Immunisations are quick, safe and effective. In England we have added to the immunisation schedule …
A few years ago I took my three year old son on a steam train. At the start of the trip he was subdued, by the end he was covered in spots; ‘The Train Spotted Me’, he wailed. His nursery …
