Oxford Textbook of Health Protection: Principles and Practice (Oxford Textbooks in Public Health)

The Oxford Textbook of Health Protection: Principles and Practice is a comprehensive guide to this important field, addressing all key domains, from communicable disease control and emergency preparedness to environmental public health. Written by leading practitioners and specialists in the field, the book is rooted in a practice-led and evidence-based, all-hazards approach, which facilitates easy access to real-world practice and application of health protection and health security principles. This second edition has been fully revised and expanded to meet the needs of an ever-evolving audience and now sits within the authoritative Oxford Textbooks in Public Health series.

This second edition includes 12 new chapters, covering new and emerging topics such as COVID-19 pandemics, genomics epidemiology, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and concepts and framework for future pandemic preparedness. The chapters are arranged into six distinct sections. Each chapter provides trustworthy evidence and a wealth of practical advice, including case studies in community and hospital settings, and practical scenarios. The real-life scenarios provide topic-specific information, explore a wide range of responses using the 'what if' questions that are supported by tools of the trade to encourage reflection, and reinforce consolidation of knowledge.

The book also includes a unique tool of self-contained checklists (SIMCARDS) covering more than 180 common and important topics that can arise in health protection practice (including those featured in the scenario chapters), with concise and succinct stand-alone quick reference guides on how to handle them within and out-of-hours.

This resource is essential reading for professionals working at all levels in public health and health protection, including those with a non-specialist background in this continually evolving and complex field of public health.

'All the editors and authors have been active in the field of health security and involved through experiential learning in the management of incidents, outbreaks, and other health protection situations for decades. All were at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are uniquely able to reflect pragmatically and personally on health security and health protection practice in a variety of situations. This book is, therefore, a practical product of the wealth of their combined experience and will support current professionals in their efforts to ensure the protection and health security of individuals and populations in the UK and internationally.'

From the Foreword by Professor Dame Jenny Harries DBE DL, First Chief Executive,
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

Sam Ghebrehewet, Head of Vaccination and Immunisation, Public Health Scotland (PHS),Alex G. Stewart, Retired Consultant in Health Protection, UKHSA,David Baxter, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control and Director of Medical Education, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust,Paul Shears, Retired Consultant Microbiologist, Wirral University Teaching Hospital,David Conrad, Director of Public Health Evidence & Improvement, Hertfordshire County Council,Merav Kliner, Regional Deputy Director for Health Protection and Consultant in Health Protection, UKHSA

Professor Ghebrehewet is a Visting Professor at the Institute of Medicine, University of Chester Medical School, and Head of Vaccination and Immunisation Division for Scotland. Prior to joining Public Health Scotland in October 2023, he has held several senior professional leadership roles in health protection in England for over 20 years: Consultant in Health Protection, Director of Health Protection Unit (Health Protection Agency), Deputy Director of Health Protection (Public Health England), and most recently Regional Deputy Director of Health Protection, Northwest UK Health Security Agency. Professor Ghebrehewet is a Medical Doctor (MD), and earlier in his medical career, he has worked as a General Practitioner and Regional Director of Public Health Programmes in Western part of Ethiopia.

Following a successful career of around 20 years in the northern mountains of Pakistan as a rural GP, Dr Stewart returned to the UK where he trained in Public Health in Cheshire and Merseyside. He was a Consultant in Health Protection for eleven years, with special interest in the acute and long-term effects of the environment on health. He has investigated and responded to many complex public health issues, and has developed an understanding of how to support local and national agencies and the public in the face of limited information, incomplete understanding, and often great uncertainty. He has published extensively, is a member of the editorial team for the Journal of Environmental Geochemistry and Health, reviews for several journals, and continues to teach postgraduate students in health protection and public health, actively maintaining his interest in health protection.


Professor Baxter has been a Consultant in Communicable Disease Control and currently is a Consultant in Health Protection for Stockport MBC Public Health Department. He has worked in Communicable Diseases Control and Health Protection for over 30 years. Over the last 35 years he has successfully run the UK National Immunisation Conference for Health Care Workers, attracting more than 200 delegates every year from all over the country, and delivered by key national and international experts.


Dr Shears is a former consultant medical microbiologist and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Arrowe Park Wirral University Hospital, North West, UK. He has a special interest in the epidemiology and control of health care associated infections. Dr Shears was previously senior lecturer in medical microbiology at Liverpool University/Liverpool School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, with postgraduate teaching responsibilities and public health microbiology projects in Sudan and Bangladesh. Dr Shears was a member of WHO working groups on antimicrobial resistance and public health laboratory development.

Mr Conrad is Director of Public Health Evidence & Improvement at Hertfordshire County Council, where he has led the management of infectious disease outbreaks in community settings and oversees local infectious disease epidemiology and surveillance work.

Dr Kliner is Regional Deputy Director for Health Protection for the North West in UK Health Security Agency. She is also a consultant in health protection, having worked within the North West for nearly 10 years. She has a special interest in TB and sexual health research, which developed during clinical training, guideline development work with WHO, and academic work within Good Shepherd Hospital in Swaziland, with the University of Leeds.