SCSU professor on stand-by to assist in coronavirus response

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    NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) — As health professionals around the globe work to get a handle on the coronavirus, a local professor is on call, knowing he could be deployed to a potential hot spot at any moment.

Southern Connecticut State University Professor Dr. John Nwangwu has traveled the world, responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the coronavirus could be next.

As a consultant with the World Health Organization, Nwangwu has deployed to Africa for Ebola, spent time in Brazil for Zika, and in the Balkans for MERS, the middle east respiratory system.

“When an infectious disease of some sort hits them, and they need help or they don’t understand or get it, that’s where I come in,” Nwangwu said.

He’s now on call 24-7 with the possibility he might have to pack his bags and respond if a country requests help for the coronavirus.

“Currently I’m working on COVID-19, not out in the field, but here, and I’m constantly analyzing what’s going on,” he said.

If he gets the call, he’ll have six hours to pack and put a team together.

Once on site, his team would provide technical expertise and support.

“One of the first things we establish is the distribution, in other words, what kind of people are getting the disease, because that gives us some guidance towards the second phase, which is establishing the etiology, what’s causing it, where is it coming from,” Nwangwu said.

Eventually, he’d help come up with a plan to help that country control the disease.

As for here in the U.S., Nwangwu said leaders need to stay on top of it.

“For us, we need to have a rapid early detection of those who are infected and be able to isolate them from the healthy, because if we don’t, that’s how the new cases will keep going up,” Nwangwu said.

He added that the key to control infectious disease is isolating those who are sick from those who are healthy.

He also said steps must be taken to protect health care providers since they’re the ones on the front line coming into contact with patients.

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