Governor JB Pritzker announced on Monday that the State of Illinois has teamed up with two leading Chicago Hospitals – Rush University Medical Center and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago – to serve as Elite Special Pathogen Treatment Centers for “High-Consequence Pathogens.” Under two agreements with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the hospitals will upgrade their capacity to treat people suffering from high-consequence pathogens. The term refers to highly infectious diseases that pose a threat to public safety, such as such Ebola virus, Lassa fever and pneumonic plague. The agreement with the two world-class, Chicago-based healthcare leaders is one of a series of steps that IDPH is taking to strengthen its global surveillance efforts in the wake of the federal government pulling out of the World Health Organization (WHO) and cutting funding for the US Department of Health and Human Services. Under the agreement, Rush will receive $900,000 in state funding from IDPH; Lurie Children’s will receive $600,000. The state funding will help the hospitals maintain airborne infection isolation rooms, invest in specialized equipment and provide enhanced training for their medical staff to deliver safe and effective care to those infected with High-Consequence Pathogens.