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Journal of Medical Microbiology logo Journal of Medical Microbiology

Volume 74, Issue 3

Cases of high consequence infectious diseases identified in the UK, 1962–2023 Open Access

Abstract

The management of patients with acute infectious diseases can present significant challenges, especially if the causative agent has a propensity for person-to-person transmission. In such cases, effective patient management is dependent on both rapid identification of disease and the provision of necessary medical care while adhering to suitable infection prevention and control measures to reduce the potential for onwards transmission. The UK has operated a defined system for managing patients with high consequence infectious diseases (HCIDs) since the 1970s, when protocols were first implemented following the first descriptions of several viral haemorrhagic fever diseases, including Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever and Ebola virus disease (EVD). While more than 200 people with HCIDs have been treated in UK hospitals since the 1970s, most of these patients had COVID-19 or mpox during the early phases of new public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs), prior to their removal from the UK HCID list in March 2020 and June 2022, respectively. Excluding PHEICs, 26 patients have been treated in HCID treatment centres between 1962 and 2023: 10 patients with Lassa fever, 7 with mpox prior to the 2022 PHEIC, 4 with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), 4 with EVD and 1 with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF). In total, 15 additional HCID patients were identified where treatment in a specialist centre did not occur due to retrospective diagnosis (4 patients with Lassa fever), mild or moderate illness [5 patients with avian influenza A(H5N1), 1 with MERS and 1 with CCHF] or death prior to transfer (2 patients with Lassa fever, 1 with CCHF and 1 with pneumonic plague). Here we summarize the UK HCID experience, including details about their detection, patient management and outcomes.

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Keyword(s): avian influenza , Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) , Ebola , high consequence infectious disease (HCID) , human case , Lassa , Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) , mpox and plague
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • UKHSA Grant in Aid
    • Principal Award Recipient: BarryAtkinson
© 2025 Crown Copyright
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2025-11-11

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Cases of high consequence infectious diseases identified in the UK, 1962–2023
J. Med. Microbiol. 74, 001982 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001982
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001982
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001982
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