As someone who ran a high containment patient care unit similar to those taking care of #hantavirus patients right now for a decade & has taken care of viral hemorrhagic patients in multiple outbreaks, I have three quick points to make:
1) no this is not the start of a global pandemic. No lockdowns coming. It's a very complicated outbreak but low risk to general public based on what we know about the pathogen and data so far. There will/may be more cases, but many suspects may be negative.
2) but this is a high mortality disease which progresses fast. We need to get people w close contact (on the boat, those who left the boat) under observation both to ensure no more chains of transmission & so they get fast care if sick. Time to advanced supportive care matters.
3) We need to care for and protect healthcare workers taking care of patients on the boat and in all receiving countries, because they are likely to have close contact and be at risk for transmission as prior events have shown
And may be one more- the biggest thing COVID-19 taught me is the importance of humility and multidisciplinary expertise. They are called emerging pathogens for a reason.
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