Spanish Technical Aid Response Team

The Spanish Technical Aid Response Team (START) is a team of public health professionals and support personnel that is prepared to deploy within 72 hours to a humanitarian crisis anywhere in the world.[1][2][3] The team is also known as the Red Vests due to the red vests worn by its members while in the field.[3][4]

Organized by the Humanitarian Action Office of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), START was certified as a specialized team by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31 May 2018 as part of its Emergency Medical Team (EMT) initiative.[2][3][5] START is classified as an EMT II team, able to provide primary care as well as surgical support and hospitalization.[5]

START was first deployed in 2019 to Dondo, Mozambique, in response to the humanitarian emergency caused by Cyclone Idai.[1][4][6] In Mozambique, the team deployed a field hospital about the size of a football pitch.[4]

The team was also part of the Spanish humanitarian response to the unplanned explosions at a munitions site in Bata, Equatorial Guinea in early 2021.[7]