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<p>Disease X is a hypothetical infection used to represent the knowledge that a serious
international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human
disease.</p><p> </p><p>Public Health England (PHE) has comprehensive systems in place
to identify and monitor global outbreaks of infectious disease, including incidents
where the cause is not identified or the outbreak is caused by a pathogen currently
unknown to cause human disease such as World Health Organization’s hypothetical “Disease
X”.</p><p> </p><p>Robust risk assessment processes exist to review threats to the
United Kingdom population. As information emerges appropriate mitigation strategies
will be implemented to protect the health of the UK public. The PHE National Emergency
Response plans exist to deal with such event and have cross-Government agreement.</p><p>
</p><p>The National Health Service-PHE High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID)
programme, initiated after the Ebola outbreak, has developed clinical and public health
protocols and plans to provide a resilient HCID service for England. This will enable
the NHS to deliver care safely and effectively for a wider range of known and unknown
HCIDs.</p>
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