It has been officially confirmed that Dr Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Andrea Ammon, Director of European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The memorandum of understanding is aimed at strengthening the collaboration between the two agencies on matters relating to the prevention and control of communicable diseases.
The areas of mutual interest for cooperation under this MoU include: epidemic intelligence and the rapid sharing of information, particularly in the event of a public health emergency; health risk assessments; laboratory capacity-building and enhancement to detect and respond to emerging disease threats of global health importance; antimicrobial resistance; healthcare-associated infections.
Dr Harries commented on the understanding: “I am pleased to sign this agreement with Director Ammon today. This MoU demonstrates UKHSA’s ongoing commitment, on behalf of the UK, to the closest possible collaboration with ECDC.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, communicable diseases do not respect borders. UKHSA firmly believes that health security collaboration with our international partners is imperative to protect all our citizens.”