UKHSA

UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) is the UK Government's executive agency responsible for health protection, infectious disease surveillance, and emergency preparedness, established in April 2021 as a successor to Public Health England. Headquartered in London, it operates the UK's national public health laboratories, maintains emergency stockpiles, and coordinates outbreak responses with ECDC, WHO, and devolved health authorities in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. UKHSA publishes weekly UKHSA Weekly Influenza and COVID-19 Reports, outbreak alerts, and technical assessments that are a primary source for UK-facing pandemic coverage. Its surveillance infrastructure includes wastewater epidemiology, genomic sequencing, and national notification systems for notifiable diseases.

UKHSA issued a statement on 6 May 2026 confirming British nationals were among those affected in the MV Hondius hantavirus cluster, placing the UK in the European secondary-monitoring picture alongside Switzerland for Andes-strain contact tracing. The confirmation means UKHSA's health protection teams are actively monitoring UK passengers and their close contacts for HCPS symptoms across the standard 45-day post-exposure window. As the Andes strain is the only hantavirus with documented person-to-person transmission capability, UKHSA protocols will differ from standard hantavirus case management: household contacts of confirmed UK cases require direct follow-up rather than passive surveillance.