Merseyside Prepared

Lead Agency in Merseyside – UK Health Security Agency

Emerging infectious diseases include new or newly recognised diseases and could result in large numbers of people falling ill. Some recently emerged diseases, such as Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, are classified as High Consequence Infectious Diseases.

These are acute infectious diseases that typically have a high case fatality rate and may or may not have effective treatment and can be difficult to recognise or diagnose rapidly.

 Between 60% and 80% of emerging infections are derived from animal sources and usually involves two main steps:

• It is introduced into a new population;
• It is established and transmitted within the new population.

Infections have been emerging for thousands of years as interactions between humans, animals and their environments have increased and changed.

The risk requires an enhanced individual, population and system response to ensure management is effective, efficient and safe. The UK Health Security Agency and NHS responders have well-tested response capabilities to detect, contain and treat novel infectious diseases.

This covers diverse virus families, which may acquire some degree of human-to-human transmission, such as influenza viruses, coronaviruses and nipah viruses.  However, we must be prepared for a disease spread via any of the 5 main routes of transmission: respiratory, blood (including sexual contact), close contact oral (food and water) and by vectors such as mosquitos.

CONSEQUENCES

The consequences could include:

• Large numbers of deaths or injuries, with places needed to help hospitals deal with an increased number of patients and mortuary spaces so that people can be treated with dignity;
• Disruption to public services such as school closures, bin collections and welfare payments;
• Significant disruption to all sectors of society.

WHAT ARE WE DOING IN MERSEYSIDE?

We work together to exercise and plan for:

• Management of the demand on the NHS and social care;
• Distribution of anti-viral medication to the public, if required;
• Vaccinations;
• Public awareness and media management;
• Managing excessive levels of death.

 The individual organisations that make up the MRF each have their own Business Continuity Plans in place to cope in times of staff shortage.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

Actions to take to best protect yourself and others from infectious diseases.

Wash your hands regularly with soap and clean running water (for at least 20 seconds) and specifically:

• Before, during and after preparing food or handling ready to eat food;
• After using the toilet or changing a soiled nappy / underwear;
• After coming into contact with animals or animal waste;
• After coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose;
• If you are unwell, or have been around people who are unwell;
• If you do not have immediate access to soap and water, hand sanitiser can be used to clean hands that are not visibly dirty. However, hand sanitiser does not effectively remove all types of disease-causing organisms (e.g., norovirus), so soap and water should be used to wash hands wherever possible;
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue if you cough or sneeze (and throw used tissues in the bin);
• Clean surfaces that people touch a lot (e.g. door handles), and regularly clean and disinfect all areas in contact with food, dirt, or body fluids (e.g. toilets);
• Ensure occupied spaces are well ventilated and let fresh air in;
• Make sure you and your family are up to date with routine vaccines. While there is not a vaccination for every infectious disease, vaccinations are the most effective way to prevent many infectious diseases. Read information about how vaccines work and the most common side effects and a full list of the routine vaccinations offered and when they should be given on the NHS website, or speak to a health professional;
• If you are unwell, try to stay home or avoid contact with other people. Some diseases have specific exclusion periods: read more about these on the NHS website;
• If travelling outside of the UK, visit the National Travel Health Network website and read the NHS travel vaccination guidance and if needed, get vaccinated before you travel.

WHAT DO BUSINESSES NEED TO DO?

• Plan for the impacts of such emerging diseases on your business, employees and customers;
• Establish policies to be implemented during an outbreak;
• Allocate resources to protect employees and customers during an outbreak;
• Communicate to and educate your employees;
• Co-ordinate with external organisations and help your community;
• Visit the GOV.UK website for further information.