RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — University of North Carolina hospitals will soon be designated as a treatment center for patients with highly infectious diseases in the region.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that UNC and Emory University are the only two Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers in the Southeast.

There are 13 treatment centers in the United States after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services appointed three new centers, including UNC, last month.

The center will be run by Dr. William Fischer and Dr. David Wohl, who both study infectious diseases at the UNC School of Medicine.

Wohl said grants to establish these treatment centers came out of the realization that infectious diseases like COVID-19, ebola and monkeypox could pop up more frequently thanks to global climate change.

With a $3 million grant from the federal government, the center will train and educate staff at UNC Hospitals, other hospitals and clinics across the Southeast how to handle an infectious disease emergency.