HIV/STI Surveillance and Prevention Scientist

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a system leader for health security; taking action internationally to strengthen global health security, providing trusted advice to government and the public and reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by infectious disease, environmental hazards, and other threats to health.

UKHSA’s remit, as an agency with a global-to-local reach, is to protect the health of the nation from infectious diseases and other external threats to health. As the nation’s expert national health security agency UKHSA will:

Prevent: anticipate threats to health and help build the nation’s readiness, defences and health security
Detect: use cutting edge environmental and biological surveillance to proactively detect and monitor infectious diseases and threats to health
Analyse: use world-class science and data analytics to assess and continually monitor threats to health, identifying how best to control and mitigate the risks
Respond: take rapid, collaborative and effective actions nationally and locally to mitigate threats to health when they materialise
Lead: lead strong and sustainable global, national, regional and local partnerships designed to save lives, protect the nation from public health threats and reduce inequalities.

Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen to work on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) team of the Blood Safety, Hepatitis, STI & HIV Division at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The Division has national responsibility for STI surveillance in England.

Main duties of the job
The postholder will be responsible for co-ordinating data collection and analysis for the Mycoplasma genitalium Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Programme (MARS). MARS is the national surveillance system which monitors the trends and distribution of resistance to antimicrobials used to treat mycoplasma genitalium and is used to inform national management guidelines. Additionally, the postholder will work on the Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP), surveillance for ceftriaxone resistant gonorrhoea and surveillance of disseminated gonorrhoea. The postholder will also play a key role in the incident team managing extremely drug resistant (XDR) gonorrhoea. The work will require carrying out epidemiological analyses to monitor trends, geographic distribution and risk factors for AMR. The postholder may also be required to respond to real-time changes in outbreaks and provide support to the wider STIs Team where needed.