Minimum standards and recommendations for medical teams responding to highly infectious disease outbreaks

Book excerpt: Infectious diseases with epidemic potential remain a significant and constant threat to the health and security of populations around the world, requiring robust health emergency preparedness, readiness and response systems and capacities at local and national levels. Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), the EMT Initiative and its global network focus on establishing common quality standards and recommendations for medical teams to respond to health emergencies rapidly and effectively, as well as strengthening and supporting national capacities through strong collaboration and coordination. This publication defines minimum standards for the establishment of such critical capacities in a predictable and quality assured manner, and will enhance the interoperability between national, regional, and international capacities. This will contribute to the development and classification of respective specialized care teams (SCT) within the EMT framework and will provide guidance to member states, ministries of health, national and international EMTs and other key stakeholders to develop capacities and trainings, preparing for, or responding to outbreaks of highly infectious diseases.