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Health Protection Units

Our role

The network of local health protection units (HPUs) operating in England are the ‘eyes and ears’ of the Agency.

We continually monitor health issues in our local area and give advice and support to the local NHS, civil and emergency authorities if a medical or environmental incident happens.

Our teams

Each unit has specialist nurses, doctors and consultants in communicable disease control, ready to respond to incidents around the clock. Other members of the team gather and interpret local information to create a picture of diseases and other hazards which is used in planning and coordinating our work.

We are supported by regional health emergency planning advisors, environmental public health units and surveillance teams. They give logistical support and technical expertise in emergency response, disease tracking and control, and chemical, radioactive and biological hazards. We also use the regional microbiology network for laboratory analysis.

Our work

We have two types of work - proactive and reactive.

Proactive work is about preventing health incidents from happening. This includes:

  • working with health partners to provide effective immunisation programmes
  • helping prevent healthcare associated infections e.g. MRSA and C. difficile
  • advising immigration authorities on travel related health issues.

Reactive work is about minimising the risk to the general public once an incident happens. Our priorities include:

  • advising how to stop infectious diseases such as meningitis, hepatitis or measles from spreading
  • carrying out risk assessments to find out how outbreaks occurred, and recommending ways to prevent them happening again
  • tracing people who may have come into contact with, or be carrying an infectious disease or be contaminated with chemicals or radiation.
  • compiling statistics on notifiable diseases e.g. mumps and measles.

We are supported by the health emergency planning advisors, environmental public health teams and epidemiology units located in each region.

Contact your nearest unit for information on how you can help protect your health. Our unit directory list  has links to all 25 units.


Last reviewed: 24 October 2011