NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Collaborates with Taiwan Centers for Disease Control to Advance Special Pathogens Preparedness

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Collaborates with Taiwan Centers for Disease Control to Advance Special Pathogens Preparedness

Visit by National Taiwan University Hospital nurse highlights international collaboration

Dec 09, 2025

New York, NY - NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue hosted a visiting registered nurse from Taiwan as part of an international collaboration with the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) to strengthen special pathogens preparedness. Registered Nurse Shan Lin, from the Airborne Isolation Intensive Care Unit at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), spent the week at Bellevue Hospital to learn about the hospital's Special Pathogens Program - from operational readiness and unit design to training models and multidisciplinary coordination. Her visit is part of a Taiwan CDC-commissioned initiative to develop advanced facilities, staffing structures, and clinical systems capable of safely managing patients with high-consequence infectious diseases. The exchange supports Taiwan's national effort to strengthen special pathogen preparedness through the creation of three Special Pathogen Technology Care Demonstration Centers, modeled after the United States' ten Regional Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Centers. Bellevue Hospital is the Regional Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Center for New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"Bellevue Hospital is honored to collaborate with Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control in this important effort to expand global health security," said NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Chief Executive Officer Eric Wei, MD, MBA. "Our hospital's long history of outbreak response - from early epidemics in New York City to Ebola and COVID-19 - underscores the value of readiness, training, and partnerships that transcend borders."

Lin participated in a comprehensive training and observation program led by Bellevue Hospital's Special Pathogens Program, which incorporated clinical and operational sessions, programs and systems overview, facility tours, including the hospital's Biocontainment Unit, and knowledge exchange. Lin shared NTUH's experience managing critically ill COVID-19 patients and lessons learned from Taiwan's response. She also visited NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, Harlem, and South Brooklyn Health and the health care system's Central Office, where she learned about caring for and transporting a special pathogens patient to Bellevue Hospital as well as system-level coordination.

"This visit has shown me how much we can accomplish through international collaboration," said Registered Nurse Shan Lin, Airborne Isolation Intensive Care Unit, National Taiwan University Hospital. "Bellevue Hospital's Special Pathogens Program exemplifies world-class readiness. I look forward to bringing these lessons back to support our hospital and Taiwan's ongoing efforts to strengthen high-consequence infectious disease care."

"Taiwan's post-SARS and COVID-19 experiences have led to a forward-looking vision for special pathogens care," said Vikramjit Mukherjee, MD, Chief of Critical Care, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and NETEC Co-Principal Investigator. "By exchanging knowledge across systems, we can help strengthen the world's collective ability to protect healthcare workers and communities from high-consequence infectious diseases."

As the oldest public hospital in the United States, Bellevue Hospital has a longstanding legacy in infectious disease management. Bellevue Hospital serves as the Regional Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Center for New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These centers act as resource hubs, providing highly specialized care for patients suspected of or infected by special pathogens such as Ebola, mpox, or H5N1 bird flu.

Bellevue Hospital was one of three U.S. institutions that successfully treated patients in the Ebola outbreak in 2014, and subsequently formed the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) - a consortium to enhance national special pathogen preparedness. The other two institutions are Emory University in Atlanta and University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.

###

MEDIA CONTACT: 212-562-4516; [email protected]

#218-25

About NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is America's oldest public hospital, established in 1736. Affiliated with the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the 851-bed hospital is a major referral center for highly complex cases, with 6,000 employees including highly skilled, interdisciplinary clinical staff. The hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center and annually it sees about 103,000 emergency room visits, and more than 520,000 outpatient visits. Clinical centers of excellence include: Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care; Cardiovascular Services; Bariatric Surgery; Designated Regional Perinatal Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Children's Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program; and Cancer Services. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/bellevue and follow us on Facebook and X (Twitter).

About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city's five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system's trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlusHealth-all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.