Consultant in Infection, Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL)

The Rare & Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) provides frontline clinical diagnostics, specialist diagnostics, and clinical advice for rare, imported or hazardous infections. The RIPL clinical/science team has 19 staff (16 whole time equivalent) including medical consultants, a clinical scientist, senior scientists, and registrars/clinical fellows. Operational management and a dedicated diagnostic development unit are provided by associated units on the Porton site. A key programme is the National Imported Fever Service, a joint venture between RIPL and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (part of UCLH) and the Royal Liverpool Hospital's Tropical and Infectious Diseases Unit. RIPL is also the National Laboratory for Lyme disease and provides a specialist clinical advice service. RIPL provides a reference diagnostic services for a wide range of zoonotic, imported, and dangerous pathogens including viral haemorrhagic fevers, the arbovirus group, hantaviruses, rickettsia and coxiella, anthrax, leptospirosis, tularaemia and other biothreat agents. RIPL team members are highly research-active and also work closely with the wider research teams across UKHSA, including on biosafety and containment, diagnostics, vaccine and therapeutic development, and public health research studies.

UKHSA Porton hosts an environmental laboratory testing samples for a range of pathogens from potentially contaminated sites. The site also includes facilities for studies on disease pathogenesis, and testing vaccines and therapeutics against dangerous infectious diseases, and there is a small vaccine production unit. The post-holder is also expected to work closely with the relevant teams at Porton and at other UKHSA sites. In addition to supporting the clinical work of the Imported Fever Service, the consultant will gain experience in working with dangerous infectious organisms, in risk assessment and management for infectious agents, and aspects of preventing contamination, environmental sampling and decontamination. This knowledge is used to advise hospital staff on how to apply these principles rationally in their setting to allow both safe and effective working in the interests of patients and carers. The Consultant in Infection will provide expert consultant support for RIPL and the Imported Fever Service. The work covers a wide range of imported bacterial and viral agents and zoonoses and vector borne diseases in the UK, and the consultant will be a key part of the team offering advice on diagnosis, management, and infection control for these agents. As an expert in control of infection and antimicrobial resistance the consultant will bring this expertise to RIPL and UKHSA as required.