Health blogs from the UK Health Security Agency
How factors like your location, job or ethnicity can damage your health
The skyline of Middlesbrough town centre, with industrial cooling towers in the background Health inequalities are avoidable differences in health across our populations. You can suffer...
My measles journey: ‘I woke to find a rash all over my body’
Posters from the Why We Get Vaccinated community engagement campaign in Bengali Saijal Ladd, Prescribing Advisor - Medicines Planning and Operations, NHS North Central London Integrated...
What is Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and how can you help combat it?
Andi Biotic reminds us to Keep Antibiotics Working Imagine a world where common infections became life-threatening, because our medicines no longer worked. It might sound like the plot for...
Travel health and the growing risk of antibiotic-resistant STIs like gonorrhoea
Travel offers exciting adventures, but it's important to protect your health wherever you go. While casual sexual encounters during holidays are common, protecting yourself from sexually...
Who’s eligible for the 2025 COVID-19 vaccine, or ‘Spring Booster’?
As we move into spring, protection from any earlier COVID-19 vaccination you may have had will be starting to wane. COVID-19 can still be very dangerous and even life threatening,...
Priority Pathogens: The disease families which require urgent scientific research
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) viral particles, located on the surface of a Vero E6 cell The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was set up to protect health from...
With tuberculosis (TB) on the rise again, how can we prevent further spread?
UKHSA’s most recent data on tuberculosis (TB) revealed a rise in reported numbers in England by 13% in 2024 (5,480) compared to 2023 (4,850). This signals a rebound to above the...
How we are pioneering artificial intelligence applications in public health
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to address health security challenges. Here are 3 examples of projects that demonstrate how...
What is space weather, and why are we monitoring it?
Solar flare Space weather occurs when explosive events near the Sun’s surface project strong radiation fields towards the Earth. These events typically peak during solar maximum – a cycle...
Nanoplastics are everywhere: what is the health impact of these tiny particles?
Nanoplastics are plastic particles smaller than 1,000 nanometers in diameter, or 100 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, and they are polluting our environment and our...
The National Collection of Type Cultures: where 100-year-old samples help solve today’s problems
Scientist using a blow torch to seal an ampule with a bacterial sample inside Within the UK Health Security Agency lies a scientific treasure trove, known as the Culture Collections....
Changes to health protection notification regulations (NOIDs)
From 6 April 2025, we’re expanding the list of pathogens that Registered Medical Professionals and laboratories in England must notify us about. The changes will strengthen local and...