Dear Dr. Takeuchi
Thank you for raising a important issue.
While Novel Coronavirus has been a great public health problem, there are several deferences on measures for nCoV among relevant countries.
In particular, as Japan is the second largest number of nCoV patients, many come to pay attention to Japan where has great dense of population in big cities and fabricated transporting system such as trains, buses and airplanes.
To contain virus outbreak, there are two main measures, broader screening or travel restriction to contain patients and proper measures for patients in each outbreak country.
I am worried about proper measures for patients in Japan because there was a kind of PANIC for 2009 Swine Flu outbreak. Mild cases rushed into big hospitals to play main roles to care for serious cases so that the functions of hospitals could not work efficiently. In the end, overflowed patients have come to go to general practitioners, spreading virus eventually.
It is my opinion that countries like Japan having dense population should be ready for nCoV outbreak inside country to provide proper roles of medical facilities for patients and enlighten people to acknowledge about the disease, clarifying seriousness of nCoV.
It have already been time to be ready.
Best regards,
Mitsunobu Kaneko
CHIFA profile: Mitsunobu Kaneko is a general practitioner, Pediatrician at the Japan Pediatric Society, Japan Medical Association. kanekomkATsea.plala.or.jp
