Why did they bring him here ?

[sadie3]

news.sky.com/story/988835/two-dead-after-contracting-mystery-virus

A severely-ill patient from the Middle East is being treated in a London hospital suffering from a mystery respiratory virus that has killed two patients in Saudi Arabia.

The 49-year-old man is in intensive care after being transferred to the UK via air-ambulance from Qatar where he was taken ill a few weeks ago having recently visiting Riyadh.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the infection is a new type of coronavirus different from any previously found in humans.

Maybe the hospital out there don't have the means to treat/test him?

Maybe he is British?

maybe we dont either?

we certainly dont have the money....and its nature is unknown. how would we manage a breakout of it here if its really so contagious and life threatening?

The report said he is from the Middle East.

Maybe the hospital wanted a chance to study it.

Because whatever people may say about the NHS, it is an incredibe institution and he probably stands a better chance of treatment and survival here than anywhere else in the world.

Probably because it's a cunning plan to launch a deadly pandemic on the western world, OP.

Or just possibly for all the other reasons stated upthread.

I'm guessing because he has money to pay for it. From the Huffington Post:

"Britain's Health Protection Agency and the World Health Organization said in statements that the 49-year-old Qatari national became ill on Sept. 3, having previously traveled to Saudi Arabia. He was transferred from Qatar to Britain on Sept. 11 and is being treated in an intensive care unit at a London hospital for problems including kidney failure. Respiratory viruses aren't usually known to cause serious kidney problems.

The Health Protection Agency said it was unaware of any ties the patient had to Britain and that he likely was in a private clinic in the Middle East before being transferred to the London hospital. It said none of the health workers involved in his treatment had fallen ill."

My first thought was he is British.

Second - he is not, but has the means to pay and the NHS has some of the best medicine in the world (and they wish to study him)

Thinking some more (and having read the article) my thoughts go along the lines of a James Bond plot however, I'll stick with thought number one for now.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2207794/Wealthy-Qatari-man-49-hires-private-jet-Britain-treated-new-strain-deadly-SARS-like-virus-caught-home-country.html

sorry for DM link - private jet to private hospital in UK then moved to NHS hospital once diagnosed!

Most NHS hospitals also accept some private patients. No doubt this man is one of them

A Qatari man infected with a potentially-fatal SARS-like virus is being held in quarantine at a London hospital.
The 49-year-old man, who had travelled to Saudi Arabia before falling ill, is in critical condition in an intensive care unit. He has become infected with a new type of virus which experts know little about.
It is only the second time in the world that this particular strain of coronavirus has been identified - the last time was roughly three months ago.

We have enough problems keeping our hospitals free of germs, do we really need a potentially fatal SARS like virus here?

No, we don't need a "potentially fatal SARS like virus here", but then I'm sure that the gentleman in question doesn't "need" it either, or anyone/ anywhere else either. Lets just hope they find a cure for him and for everyone else.

Certain hospitals in London have specialist ICUs with isolation facilities for example the School of Tropical Medicine. The other way of looking at it is he is probably paying a shed load of money to be treated in an NHS hospital our clinicians will be able to run tests to their hearts content as he is paying so the information they are gaining is huge. Meaning that should they have to treat a UK patient on NHS money they will be able to be much more focused,

Yes, because only we and a handful of other highly developed countries have the means to study and treat these illnesses. And because once it is out there in the world, it will probably crop up here eventually, so it is better to grasp the nettle and get a head start.

This isn't pure altruism or mere self-interest, I suspect, but a healthy combination of the two. Countries tend to liaise through the World Health Organisation when new diseases come up, for mutual benefit. Different research teams in different countries do separate bits in the race for a vaccine.

Generally not a situation for Little Englander attitudes.

I think it is very unlikely that he is on an open ward and that staff are popping in and out with gay abandon.
They know he has an infectious illness.
He will be in isolation.
Unlike thousands of others wandering around London as we speak, spreading whatever germs they have.

We do not have a comprehensive quarantine system for humans travelling in and out of the UK (as of 2012):

a coronavirus, such as this man has, does not usually last more than 24 hours outside of a human body and is easily destroyed by detergents or other cleaning agents.

As Lonecat says, London has specialist ICU's - populated by highly skilled and knowledgeable clinicians.

The NHS will treat him and he will be billed (or his estate) at a later date.

I'd much prefer this poor chap to be in quarantine and being treated at a specialist unit in the UK than I would he were left in his home community, possibly without access to decent health care so that the disease has the best possible chance of spreading, unchecked and untreated. Because disease rarely respects boundaries and once it is out there, we are all vulnerable.

As said, upthread, Little Englander attitudes are unhelpful in this situation.

PS. Actually, I can't think of any situation which calls for Little Englander attitudes!

No other country in the world would accept someone with a deadly unknown virus and fly them to one of their hospitals.
Another example of stupidity in Britain.
Lets hope it doesn't spread

I think the OP has a point and some caution could have been exercised in admitting him to the UK. Hopefully it was, I don't know. And hopefully caramel is right that the virus "does not last more than 24 hrs outside the human body" & "is easily destroyed by detergents" etc. Hopefully that gives the rest of us adequate protection from the risk of it spreading widely ?

Bloody hell, he probably caught it off a goat. It's political correctness gone mad! Why should the NHS be treating these nasty foreign diseases anyway? What's wrong with nice English diseases?

As it's been noted up thread this man or the country he has come here from will be billed for his care. He will be nursed in isolation and all precautions will be taken. Would you prefer he was left in his home country to die? Says a lot about the status of the NHS in the rest of the world.

OP this is one of the most xenophobic posts I've ever read on the Internet.

A man is gravely ill. We have the means to treat him. He has the means to pay.

Treating him will benefit our medical research and is his best chance of living

And you take hysterical issue with that? Are you really arrogant enough to assume that you have thought through the safety implications more thoroughly that the medical staff involved?

Disgusting attitude.

YY Felicity

I'm sure the fully-trained medical staff will have taken the risks into account before agreeing to admit this man for treatment that may save his live.