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Health protection and a new strategy for combating infection in children
  1. E G Davies1,
  2. M Sharland2,
  3. A Nicoll3
  1. 1Host Defence Unit, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK
  2. 2Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, St George’s Hospital, London, UK
  3. 3PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to:
    Dr A Nicoll, PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ, UK
    anicoll{at}phls.org.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.88.1.1

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    A unique opportunity to develop world class infection and health protection services for children

    The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England has recently published a strategy for health protection (see box for definition).1 The prevention, diagnosis, and management of infection forms a large part of this but the new Health Protection Agency (HPA), which will become active in April 2003, will also deal with emergency planning and environmental threats to human health as there are many overlaps in the approaches to dealing with infections, and chemical and radiological threats.1 This initiative has important implications for the way in which paediatricians will work to protect children from all such threats. In combination with the National Service Framework (NSF) for Children,2 it offers the opportunity for developing networks of care which will potentially provide a high quality infection diagnosis and treatment service for all children.

    INCREASING THREATS FROM INFECTION, AND CHEMICAL AND OTHER AGENTS

    Infections are causing increasing problems in public health and clinical care. The rising toll of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections,3 mounting numbers of cases of tuberculosis (particularly in London),4 health care associated infections and antibiotic resistant pathogens in hospitals and the community,5 and the continuing worries over immunisation uptake6 are but a few.1 Children are particularly vulnerable to exposure to environmental toxic agents in utero and in early life. Chemical spills and natural disasters have revealed gaps in civil protection in many countries and there are increasing concerns over terrorism, including the covert deliberate release of biological and chemical agents.1,8–,11 The strategy addresses these issues for England.1

    Health protection—definition

    • The communicable disease function

    • Protection against non-communicable environmental hazards

    • Emergency planning and response

    A HEALTH PROTECTION AGENCY

    A new Agency will be developed by combining three current non-departmental public bodies (the Public Health Laboratory Service, the Centre for …

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