Jill Morgan: 00:00:27

Hello, and welcome to Transmission Interrupted.

Jill Morgan: 00:00:29

My name is Jill Morgan.

Jill Morgan: 00:00:31

I'm a nurse here at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jill Morgan: 00:00:34

For those of you not yet familiar with NETEC, our mission is to set the gold

Jill Morgan: 00:00:37

standard for special pathogen preparedness and response across health systems in

Jill Morgan: 00:00:41

the U.S., with the goals of driving best practices and closing knowledge gaps

Jill Morgan: 00:00:45

and developing innovative resources.

Jill Morgan: 00:00:48

NETEC works alongside and in cooperation with the CDC, and is

Jill Morgan: 00:00:51

funded by ASPR, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

Jill Morgan: 00:00:56

And speaking of strategic preparedness and response, we are going to talk today with

Jill Morgan: 00:01:03

Dr. Gaby Frank, who's an internist and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Jill Morgan: 00:01:08

She is the director of the Special Pathogens Center at Johns Hopkins, and has

Jill Morgan: 00:01:12

joined us before for conversations about hanta I don't think we could have a more

Jill Morgan: 00:01:18

timely conversation than this, to sort of set the record straight a little bit.

Jill Morgan: 00:01:22

So welcome, Gaby, So happy to have you with us today.

Gaby Frank: 00:01:27

Thank you for having me back.

Gaby Frank: 00:01:28

It was, it's always great to spend some time with you, Jill.

Jill Morgan: 00:01:32

Yeah.

Jill Morgan: 00:01:32

So let's start out.

Jill Morgan: 00:01:33

I just wanna maybe set the stage a little bit because I know there

Jill Morgan: 00:01:36

are a lot of questions that people have about all these things, right?

Jill Morgan: 00:01:40

It's the question of what do some of these things mean, these terms?

Jill Morgan: 00:01:45

Where do we get them from?

Jill Morgan: 00:01:47

What is isolation, and what is quarantine?

Jill Morgan: 00:01:49

So I want to start with just, like, setting the stage there and understanding

Jill Morgan: 00:01:53

that these are the terms as we define them here in the United States, and that

Jill Morgan: 00:01:58

because this is a public health, these are public health terms, they may be

Jill Morgan: 00:02:03

defined differently in other countries.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:06

Other people may use different terms or maybe use these a little bit

Jill Morgan: 00:02:09

more interchangeably than we do.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:11

But here in the United States, and again, this is from our Health and Human

Jill Morgan: 00:02:15

Services Administration, isolation is really what we think of, like, if you

Jill Morgan: 00:02:19

had a person, maybe they've got, I don't know, some infectious disease in

Jill Morgan: 00:02:24

the hospital and they're in isolation.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:26

And that's a sick person with a contagious disease, and we're isolating them to

Jill Morgan: 00:02:30

keep other people from getting sick.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:32

So we're keeping the sick person away from other people.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:35

When we think about quarantine, we're still separating them, and in most

Jill Morgan: 00:02:40

cases, when we say quarantine here in the U.S., we're talking about actually

Jill Morgan: 00:02:43

restricting the movement of people.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:46

They may not be sick though.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:47

These are people who were exposed to a contagious disease, and we're watching

Jill Morgan: 00:02:51

them to see if in fact they become sick.

Jill Morgan: 00:02:55

Because for some contagious diseases, and I'm not saying this is true for hanta,

Jill Morgan: 00:02:58

I'm not sure how much we know yet, but for some contagious diseases, they could

Jill Morgan: 00:03:03

spread that before they even get sick.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:05

So famously of course, if you have somebody with measles, you can spread

Jill Morgan: 00:03:10

measles even before you develop symptoms.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:12

So it's really important, that these kinds of measures can be put in place

Jill Morgan: 00:03:17

to help protect others who are just sort of innocent victims and might run

Jill Morgan: 00:03:21

into people or be in contact with folks.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:24

You certainly wouldn't want the people who are serving you food or

Jill Morgan: 00:03:27

working right next to your cubicle in the office or wherever you are,

Jill Morgan: 00:03:33

to have something highly contagious.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:35

You would like to think that they could be separated if that were possible.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:38

So let's just start there, and then let's dive into a little

Jill Morgan: 00:03:44

bit about this hanta outbreak.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:46

I guess, Gaby, to me, this is certainly not what we were thinking of when

Jill Morgan: 00:03:49

you and I last talked about hanta.

Jill Morgan: 00:03:52

Can you just give a little bit of an overview of the species of the

Jill Morgan: 00:03:58

hantavirus that's in question here, and a little bit of background about

Jill Morgan: 00:04:03

hanta and how it makes people sick?

Gaby Frank: 00:04:06

Absolutely.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:07

So for those who missed the last podcast you should go and listen to it.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:10

It was a lot of fun.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:12

And there's a lot of great information shared on that one.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:15

So, and probably for those who listen to us, this is gonna be repeated

Gaby Frank: 00:04:18

information, but there's many hantaviruses that are described in the

Gaby Frank: 00:04:22

world, over 28 or around 28 that are described to cause disease in humans.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:27

In the Americas, North, Central, and South America, we have a lot of different

Gaby Frank: 00:04:31

strains of hantavirus that cause what we call hanta pulmonary syndrome

Gaby Frank: 00:04:36

or hanta cardiopulmonary syndrome.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:39

And they are all throughout America, so we do have our own

Gaby Frank: 00:04:42

strains in the U.S., particularly in the area of the four corners.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:46

In Argentina, that is where the ship started, and I think that that's

Gaby Frank: 00:04:50

what we're talking about Andes virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:51

They also have many different hantaviruses, but this Andes virus strain

Gaby Frank: 00:04:56

is particular for the area of Patagonia.

Gaby Frank: 00:04:59

And this is the one that is known to cause human-to-human transmission.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:04

There's two strains of Andes viruses, the typical Andes virus and the

Gaby Frank: 00:05:08

one that is called Buenos Aires virus, the International Committee

Gaby Frank: 00:05:12

on Viral Taxonomy still considers it as a separate Andes virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:16

But there's two only that have been identified that can cause human-to-human

Gaby Frank: 00:05:20

transmission, but they're both in the same big group of Andes viruses.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:24

And again, this is the one in Argentina, but this is not the only hantavirus

Gaby Frank: 00:05:28

that people have in Argentina.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:29

So even when we think about exposures with rodents in Argentina, it's not

Gaby Frank: 00:05:33

the whole country that is at risk for getting people exposed to Andes virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:37

It's just certain particular areas of Argentina.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:41

And what is important to know about hanta, as we said before, particularly

Gaby Frank: 00:05:44

the viruses that cause hanta pulmonary syndrome, is that there's a lot of

Gaby Frank: 00:05:47

different strains throughout America, and most of them, people acquire

Gaby Frank: 00:05:51

it from contact with mice droppings that may be infected with the virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:05:56

So I think that knowing the precautions on how to prevent getting hantaviruses

Gaby Frank: 00:06:00

is key, no matter where you live.

Gaby Frank: 00:06:02

So I think that now that we're getting to the summer times when people start

Gaby Frank: 00:06:08

cleaning garages and stuff, it's always good to make sure that area is ventilated,

Gaby Frank: 00:06:12

that if we're gonna be generating some dust, that we wear masks and gloves.

Gaby Frank: 00:06:16

And just be careful because This is not about Andes virus, but, you

Gaby Frank: 00:06:20

know, we do have our own, hantas here that we should try to prevent.

Jill Morgan: 00:06:26

Yeah.

Jill Morgan: 00:06:26

And I think it's a really important point, I'm glad you brought this up, that

Jill Morgan: 00:06:29

there are these viruses that can make people sick if you get it straight from

Jill Morgan: 00:06:37

the rodent droppings, saliva, whatever, that's been contaminating the area.

Jill Morgan: 00:06:42

But for most of those, they don't make anybody else sick, right?

Jill Morgan: 00:06:46

So in other words, you get from this mouse, but unless somebody else

Jill Morgan: 00:06:50

was in contact with the mouse or the mouse stuff, we'll just call it

Jill Morgan: 00:06:53

stuff, they're not gonna get sick.

Jill Morgan: 00:06:55

So there's very little, very few of these hantaviruses that actually then

Jill Morgan: 00:07:00

have person-to-person spread, where if I get it, I can give it to you.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:05

So we have a bunch of hantaviruses.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:08

We have only a few that can make people sick person-to-person.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:14

But, all of those hantaviruses can make that one person very sick.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:18

Like you said, hanta pulmonary syndrome.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:21

I don't, you know, really I think breathing is just

Jill Morgan: 00:07:24

an underappreciated skill.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:27

It's really important.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:29

Nothing can make you feel worse than not being able to breathe.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:32

And so hanta pulmonary syndrome is a very serious thing, and this is why

Jill Morgan: 00:07:37

we take these pathogens so seriously.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:40

But again, we have all the hantaviruses you can get from the rodents.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:44

But if you're not exposed to the rodents, the actual odds of you getting these

Jill Morgan: 00:07:48

from another person are very, very small.

Jill Morgan: 00:07:52

So as a lesson, we want to say, "Look, you want to avoid getting them from

Jill Morgan: 00:07:59

the animal. You want to avoid getting them from the rodents." And as it turns

Jill Morgan: 00:08:03

out, even that's not that easy, right?

Jill Morgan: 00:08:05

I mean, I think that was one of the great things really that was sort of revelatory

Jill Morgan: 00:08:09

to me talking with our hantavirus expert from the University of New Mexico.

Jill Morgan: 00:08:13

Dr. Bradshute said, "You know, actually, as it turns out, there's a lot of

Jill Morgan: 00:08:17

hanta out there, and it's not making people sick." So I want to say, we're

Jill Morgan: 00:08:22

gonna try to fill in as many gaps in information as we can today, but there

Jill Morgan: 00:08:27

are still a lot of gaps out there.

Jill Morgan: 00:08:28

And I think, Gaby, when you and I were talking earlier, you were talking about

Jill Morgan: 00:08:32

some other gaps just from a clinical, like internist, your work, the things

Jill Morgan: 00:08:37

you wish you knew about this pathogen.

Jill Morgan: 00:08:40

Like, how prevalent is it?

Jill Morgan: 00:08:42

How many people might have been exposed and never have had symptoms?

Jill Morgan: 00:08:47

Where is the science on things like that?

Gaby Frank: 00:08:50

I think that that is one important thing to

Gaby Frank: 00:08:52

remember about science, right?

Gaby Frank: 00:08:53

we don't start knowing everything.

Gaby Frank: 00:08:55

So I think that what we know about different pathogens and science in

Gaby Frank: 00:08:59

general changes over time because the more we know, the more the opinions may

Gaby Frank: 00:09:03

change because we have more information to actually make recommendations, upon.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:08

So some of the things that we do know is, like, what are the chances that if

Gaby Frank: 00:09:12

you get exposed to the hanta, either from mice or from another person that

Gaby Frank: 00:09:17

has, in this case, Andes virus, what are the chances that you're gonna get sick?

Gaby Frank: 00:09:21

And that is something that we're still trying to understand.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:24

We talked in the last podcast how there were some seroprevalence studies

Gaby Frank: 00:09:28

in Europe for a different hantavirus, that they noticed that some people

Gaby Frank: 00:09:32

actually tested positive even though they never actually had symptoms.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:36

This is something that we're still lacking and we need more information on.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:39

What we do know, though, is that a group of researchers in Chile, what they did

Gaby Frank: 00:09:43

is they follow people who were in contact with 76 confirmed cases of, Andes virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:50

That is the hantavirus that we're talking about right now.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:53

And again, the 76 were not all at the same time.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:55

The study was done over many, many years.

Gaby Frank: 00:09:57

But they followed, like, over 470 contacts of those people, and only 3.3% of the

Gaby Frank: 00:10:04

contacts actually developed the disease.

Gaby Frank: 00:10:06

So do we know that it's always this rate?

Gaby Frank: 00:10:08

Do we know exactly what are the risk in each of these people that put

Gaby Frank: 00:10:12

them at higher risk for developing?

Gaby Frank: 00:10:13

What they did notice by following all of these contacts is that sexual

Gaby Frank: 00:10:17

intercourse was the highest risk for actually acquiring the disease.

Gaby Frank: 00:10:21

We do know that the close contacts are usually people who are in close,

Gaby Frank: 00:10:25

areas with them, either household members or romantic partners.

Gaby Frank: 00:10:28

So I think that there's still a lot more to learn about it.

Gaby Frank: 00:10:31

But even from this study, when they were following contacts of people that had

Gaby Frank: 00:10:36

confirmed Andes virus, 3.3% were the ones who actually developed the disease.

Gaby Frank: 00:10:42

There's still more to understand, right?

Gaby Frank: 00:10:43

We don't know how many of those who will get exposed to the virus through rodents

Gaby Frank: 00:10:47

will get the disease, as we still don't know how many of those who get exposed

Gaby Frank: 00:10:52

to someone that had Andes virus, that is the one that can transmit from person to

Gaby Frank: 00:10:56

person, will actually develop the disease.

Gaby Frank: 00:10:58

So we need to be careful and treat everybody as a potential, risk of

Gaby Frank: 00:11:03

developing the disease, just to make sure that we keep not just the exposed

Gaby Frank: 00:11:07

people safe, so we can identify the disease early and treat early, but

Gaby Frank: 00:11:11

also the rest of the community safe.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:13

I think it's a great point that, when we don't know enough, we'd

Jill Morgan: 00:11:17

like to think, and I hope this is a lesson, speaking as a healthcare worker,

Jill Morgan: 00:11:22

that we actually learned from COVID, which is we want to protect ourselves.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:26

We want to protect our coworkers.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:28

We want to protect the healthcare community, which we didn't

Jill Morgan: 00:11:31

necessarily do a great job of before.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:33

And so we're gonna sort of maybe even overprotect to start with, because

Jill Morgan: 00:11:38

we can always back down a little bit.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:40

I know that Dr. Frank, you've had the same experience where, gosh, you're

Jill Morgan: 00:11:44

taking care of a patient for a few days, and then suddenly somebody decides to

Jill Morgan: 00:11:47

put them in isolation, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, wait a minute. Like, I've

Jill Morgan: 00:11:52

already been in contact with them." And that's a terrible feeling, right?

Jill Morgan: 00:11:55

For anybody.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:56

We want to protect you before you have that contact.

Jill Morgan: 00:11:58

So I think you're right.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:00

There might be some things we don't know.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:01

We might be overshooting the protection, but we'd rather do that and be

Jill Morgan: 00:12:06

able to back off as we learn more than to say, "Oh, sorry, we didn't

Jill Morgan: 00:12:10

protect you and we should have."

Jill Morgan: 00:12:12

I think it's really important to go back to one of the things you mentioned

Jill Morgan: 00:12:15

about these are the kinds of things that maybe people don't think are so

Jill Morgan: 00:12:20

important when you're talking about, oh, I do research on, you know, mice

Jill Morgan: 00:12:25

and cactus, or I do research on, these things that are down in Patagonia.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:30

But We live in such a connected world.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:34

We want to go out and experience the world.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:36

We want people to travel.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:38

We want to travel ourselves.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:40

We want to be able to be out and about.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:43

And so the more we know about these pathogens, I mean, in some ways

Jill Morgan: 00:12:49

we find out some things that tell us, "Oh, well, you know what? It's

Jill Morgan: 00:12:52

not such a big risk." You know?

Jill Morgan: 00:12:53

Maybe we've overshot the risk about some of these things.

Jill Morgan: 00:12:56

But if we don't know anything about the pathogen, then it's just a big

Jill Morgan: 00:12:59

black box of confusion and fear and, that's not good for anybody.

Jill Morgan: 00:13:04

I think that I would like to ask about, you know, you mentioned like sexual

Jill Morgan: 00:13:10

contact, close rom-romantic partners, being in confined spaces versus maybe

Jill Morgan: 00:13:14

what we think of as casual contact.

Jill Morgan: 00:13:17

And so from your perspective, when somebody says, "Well, you don't seem to

Jill Morgan: 00:13:21

be able to get it from casual contact," is that like me going to the grocery store

Jill Morgan: 00:13:26

or me being on public transportation?

Jill Morgan: 00:13:28

Or where does casual contact end and close contact begin?

Gaby Frank: 00:13:33

When we're in the U.S., we need to consider the contacts per the

Gaby Frank: 00:13:36

CDC definition, and different countries will have different definitions.

Gaby Frank: 00:13:40

What is considered close contact, so everything that is not in the close

Gaby Frank: 00:13:45

contact is considered casual contact.

Gaby Frank: 00:13:47

Like when, when we're talking about human-to-human transmission, right?

Gaby Frank: 00:13:50

Not when we're talking about an environmental exposure, but when

Gaby Frank: 00:13:52

we're talking about human-to-human transmission, what they consider

Gaby Frank: 00:13:56

in argentina is 30 minutes less than one meter of distance, right?

Gaby Frank: 00:14:02

So that is like 30 minutes within one meter, that is actually pretty close.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:08

So I think that when we're talking about transportation, it depends

Gaby Frank: 00:14:11

on whether the transportation was a two-hour transportation and you're

Gaby Frank: 00:14:14

sharing the seat with the person versus you're like six rows back and

Gaby Frank: 00:14:18

there's enough ventilation in the area.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:20

So, I think that the definition may vary a little because it's hard

Gaby Frank: 00:14:24

to, when we make definitions, to address every possible scenario.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:27

So I think that we need to always be rational when we address

Gaby Frank: 00:14:30

each particular case and see do they meet the definition or not.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:33

But the big definition for low-risk contact is, this is for Argentina and

Gaby Frank: 00:14:39

this is for their definition, since the Argentina and Chile are the two countries

Gaby Frank: 00:14:43

that have an endemic area for Andes virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:45

So I'm using the definition from Argentina because I am originally from Argentina,

Gaby Frank: 00:14:49

so I'm gonna use those definitions.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:52

Basically low-risk contact is half hour, less than a meter.

Gaby Frank: 00:14:56

So that seems like probably crossing path with someone in the grocery

Gaby Frank: 00:15:00

store doesn't even meet the low contact, the low-risk definition,

Gaby Frank: 00:15:03

so it's not even considered a risk.

Gaby Frank: 00:15:06

And again, we live in the United States, so we need to, when we're addressing

Gaby Frank: 00:15:10

this, we'll go by the CDC definitions.

Gaby Frank: 00:15:12

That is how this varies and we need to analyze each case in

Gaby Frank: 00:15:16

particular when we encounter this.

Gaby Frank: 00:15:18

And the other thing that I wanted to bring up, again, talking about Argentina, is

Gaby Frank: 00:15:22

that in their epidemiological bulletin for this last season for hanta, although there

Gaby Frank: 00:15:28

were like around 100 cases of hantavirus diagnosed in Argentina in the last season,

Gaby Frank: 00:15:33

the last hanta season, only around 10 happened in endemic area for Andes virus.

Gaby Frank: 00:15:40

So although it's endemic area, you can see how people that live in area where

Gaby Frank: 00:15:45

the rodents are or there's hantavirus, there were only like, around 10 cases.

Gaby Frank: 00:15:49

So I think that we still need a little more understanding in what are the

Gaby Frank: 00:15:53

true risks, of actually developing the disease after exposure to an infected

Gaby Frank: 00:15:58

rodent or the infected rodent droppings.

Jill Morgan: 00:16:02

I'm hoping that if people can take one thing away from this today,

Jill Morgan: 00:16:05

it's that, yes, hanta is out there in the United States, in Central and South

Jill Morgan: 00:16:10

America, but generally speaking, in a form that requires humans to be in

Jill Morgan: 00:16:18

contact with aerosolized infected rodent urine droppings or saliva that we've

Jill Morgan: 00:16:26

stirred up, typically, as you said.

Jill Morgan: 00:16:28

Like, I'm cleaning up, I'm sweeping, I'm washing something out, I'm

Jill Morgan: 00:16:32

disturbing these things and I might inhale or somehow contact with

Jill Morgan: 00:16:36

this infected rodent excrement.

Jill Morgan: 00:16:40

Only of all those places that are potential exposures, which I think

Jill Morgan: 00:16:44

for most of us is not… you know, maybe you're camping, maybe you're

Jill Morgan: 00:16:47

cleaning out cabins, maybe that's your job, and that definitely

Jill Morgan: 00:16:50

means you need to use precautions.

Jill Morgan: 00:16:54

But of all those hantas, there's only a little bit that's actually then possible

Jill Morgan: 00:16:59

to transmit one person to another.

Jill Morgan: 00:17:03

And even then, with that small number of things that can be transmitted

Jill Morgan: 00:17:07

person to person, we think you need pretty close or sustained contact.

Jill Morgan: 00:17:12

Like you said, within arm's length and for about thirty minutes.

Jill Morgan: 00:17:17

Now, that could absolutely happen if you're stuck on a plane, train,

Jill Morgan: 00:17:22

automobile, in an office next to somebody, perhaps in a cubby.

Jill Morgan: 00:17:26

But you could also get the flu from them in those situations or some of the other

Jill Morgan: 00:17:31

pathogens that we transmit all the time

Jill Morgan: 00:17:33

So I think really it sounds like as serious as hantapulmonary or

Jill Morgan: 00:17:38

hantacardiopulmonary syndrome can be, and we're talking serious, like

Jill Morgan: 00:17:42

thirty percent fatality rate, right?

Jill Morgan: 00:17:44

For some of those things.

Jill Morgan: 00:17:45

So very serious diseases.

Jill Morgan: 00:17:48

They're still, luckily, amazingly difficult to get, and probably while

Jill Morgan: 00:17:56

we want to take them very seriously, we don't want this to rise to the

Jill Morgan: 00:18:03

level of really freaking people out.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:07

Absolutely.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:08

I think that we are at a point where we want to make sure that everybody's safe.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:12

We need to monitor the people that were exposed because, you

Gaby Frank: 00:18:15

know, they were sharing like in close space with, confirmed cases.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:20

At the same time, at this point, there is no risk for the general public.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:23

So, while we will still recommend to wear precautions because there's people having,

Gaby Frank: 00:18:29

as you said, flu or other things, we still, you know, want people to stay safe.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:34

But , the risk for acquiring an infection from Andes hantavirus is

Gaby Frank: 00:18:39

very, very low for our general public.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:42

So I think that what we have right now is a great national, international

Gaby Frank: 00:18:47

collaboration, what we actually learn from each other, and we try

Gaby Frank: 00:18:50

to share information so we can…

Gaby Frank: 00:18:52

If something like this happens again, we are a lot better prepared

Gaby Frank: 00:18:55

to actually prevent cases and treat people as fast as possible.

Gaby Frank: 00:18:59

So we're always trying to learn and do better for our communities.

Gaby Frank: 00:19:03

but low risk for general population at this point.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:07

I think that's a great way to wrap this up.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:09

So yes, we want to support research.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:12

We want to support the people doing the research that keeps us

Jill Morgan: 00:19:15

safe, and that means we have to look at some of these pathogens.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:18

We need to know things like how easy are they to get and,

Jill Morgan: 00:19:21

where do you get them from?

Jill Morgan: 00:19:23

And there are always gonna be some questions we don't have answers to.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:27

But as Dr. Frank said, the risk for this one for the general public is very low.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:32

We're hoping for the good health of anybody who is exposed,

Jill Morgan: 00:19:35

because if they get sick it can be quite a serious disease.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:39

But that doesn't mean that the rest of us who haven't been exposed

Jill Morgan: 00:19:44

have something big to worry about.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:48

So Gaby, it's such a pleasure to talk to you.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:50

I really enjoy spending time with you.

Jill Morgan: 00:19:52

I, I love to hear more about, your history with, treating these things and thinking

Jill Morgan: 00:19:58

about these things from the perspective of somebody who actually, lived in

Jill Morgan: 00:20:02

places where they are much more common.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:05

So thank you for joining us again today on, uh, Transmission Interrupted.

Gaby Frank: 00:20:10

Thank you very much for having me.

Gaby Frank: 00:20:12

Jill, always a pleasure.

Gaby Frank: 00:20:14

You're the most engaging host I've have worked with.

Gaby Frank: 00:20:16

You're amazing.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:18

Well, thank you.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:19

It's 'cause we always pick these interesting topics.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:22

For those of you listening at home, thank you for tuning in

Jill Morgan: 00:20:24

to this episode on Andes hanta.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:26

We hope you'll join us for future episodes on whichever pathogen might show up

Jill Morgan: 00:20:30

next, but also about healthcare worker safety, and personal protective equipment,

Jill Morgan: 00:20:35

and any kind of infectious disease.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:37

If you have questions for NETEC or ideas for future shows, please feel

Jill Morgan: 00:20:40

free to contact us at info@netec.org.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:45

That's info@netec.org.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:46

You can also find us on the web at netec.org/podcast, where of you can

Jill Morgan: 00:20:51

also subscribe to future episodes.

Jill Morgan: 00:20:53

So thank you so much, and we will see you next time on Transmission Interrupted.