Health Security releases special supplement on the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Center News
June 1, 2022 – Today, the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security announce the publication of a new supplemental issue of the peer-reviewed journal Health Security. The open access issue highlights the work of NETEC and the national network of Regional Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Centers (RESPTCs) from the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2015, during the height of the West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established a 4-tiered structure for response to special pathogen diseases across the United States, enabling a nationwide system of readiness at the healthcare facility level that can act at the earliest signs of an emerging infectious disease outbreak. This system is led by NETEC and the network of RESPTCs that cover each HHS region of the country. Since then, the system has maintained a state of readiness for diagnosis and patient care, which continues to be leveraged to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This new Health Security supplement is a collection of 14 papers that highlight the work of NETEC and the national network of RESPTCs during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. These papers underscore how RESPTCs have contributed to national and global pandemic preparedness and response, provider education and training, and the US operational response and clinical research capabilities. This supplement provides a vision for the future—where a stronger, more integrated special pathogen system of care will improve the nation’s response to future high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks.
The guest editors of this supplement are Lauren Sauer, MSc, University of Nebraska Medical Center and NETEC; Vikramjit Mukherjee, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and NETEC; and Eric Toner, MD, and Diane Meyer, RN, MPH, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Read the supplement here: https://www.liebertpub.com/toc/hs/20/S1