Thanks to Helen Branswell for tweeting the link to this Eurosurveillance.org report: The United Kingdom public health response to an imported laboratory confirmed case of a novel coronavirus in September 2012. The abstract:
On 22 September 2012, a novel coronavirus, very closely related to that from a fatal case in Saudi Arabia three months previously, was detected in a previously well adult transferred to intensive care in London from Qatar with severe respiratory illness. Strict respiratory isolation was instituted. Ten days after last exposure, none of 64 close contacts had developed severe disease, with 13 of 64 reporting mild respiratory symptoms. The novel coronavirus was not detected in 10 of 10 symptomatic contacts tested.But read the whole report. It's a fascinating narrative with, as Branswell noted, a good timeline graphic. It gives me a sense of the public-health firepower we can bring to bear on such new outbreaks. If only we could bring it bear on some of the old outbreaks as well.
