Ruchi Sinha is a consultant in PICU in St Mary’s, London, where she works in conjunction with the infectious diseases team to plan the UK’s response to High Consequence Infectious Diseases.
These are the scary ones: Ebola, Hantavirus, Lassa Fever, the novel coronaviruses, etc. These are the diseases which have a high mortality and a rapid spread. The news is full of the novel coronavirus in China, and its rapid spread throughout the world.
How is the UK set up for these? Can we cope? How should a paediatric intensive care deal with such a patient? Should they be offered full intensive care? If we do, is it physically possible? What are the risks to the health care staff? And what happens if it all truly hits the fan?
Scary diseases, scary thoughts. But we all need to have thought of them before it happens.
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