Peter White

I am Head of the Modelling & Economics Unit in the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and I have a part-time position in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, at Imperial College London. I am also Co-Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Modelling and Health Economics at Imperial College London in partnership with UKHSA and LSHTM. I am currently a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Advisory Group on STI Research Priority Setting.

My personal research interests include health systems research, statistical analysis and mathematical modelling of the epidemiology of, and the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions against, sexually transmitted infections (particularly gonorrhoea and Mycoplasma genitalium), tuberculosis, influenza, and COVID-19.

I am a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and was a member of the steering group of the Infectious Disease Research Network (IDRN), and a participant in the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Crucible programme.

In addition to lecturing to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Imperial, including on the MSc in Epidemiology, and lecture on the Vaccinology course at Institut Pasteur. I recently helped teach a modelling course for the Public Health Foundation of India, based on Imperial College's professional short course, Introduction to Mathematical Models of the Epidemiology & Control of Infectious Diseases. For the last few years I have organised the (almost) annual one-day course, Introduction to Infectious Disease Modelling to Inform Policy Making.

Collaborative studies of STIs, HIV, TB and influenza LSHTM, Queen Mary, University of London, University College London, the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Warwick, and others.

The BBC (in its Panorama and news webpages) and the Times newspaper have reported modelling work from the Patsi study of the epidemiological impact of difficulties that previously existed in obtaining STI healthcare in the UK. We showed how failing to provide adequate capacity to treat curable infectious disease (in this case, gonorrhoea) creates a vicious circle by allowing further spreading of infection and so creating more demand for treatment. In contrast, providing adequate capacity creates a virtuous circle where most potential spreading is prevented, keeping infection rates and demand for treatment low. Investing in increased capacity, to break the vicious circle, greatly reduces numbers of future infections and so offers cost savings as well as improving health. This work has also been presented at the House of Commons (UK Parliament). Following this work, increased resources were made available for sexual health, and access to care improved. There is a summary for public-health officials and policy-makers available. With sexual health clinics becoming stretched once more and STIs such as gonorrhoea increasing rapidly, we may be in a similar situation once again - made worse by antimicrobial resistance.