A little pondering of How To Manage Communicable Diseases (which is what we've been paying the Top Professionals the big bucks for, lo these many years) leads to an idea whose time seemed long gone... but which seems really appropriate for managing outbreaks of dread diseases while the afflicted population is small.
See the post title for a hint.
Yes, designated isolation colonies were used for leprosy back in the day, despite its being not terribly contagious (and most of the population not even being susceptible).
If it's, say, the 1990s, and you have a fair-sized budget for preparing for contagion control, and you've heard of Ebola, and Marburg, and suchlike things... what's an obvious measure to take, in preparation for the day one of those diseases, or something else that's nasty, contagious, and incurable at the moment, breaks out?
Right. Take an unpopulated island, or some other controlled-access area. Build a low-budget resort, designed to be mothballed for extended periods, and partitioned into several zones, each with hospital facilities. Now mothball it, and post a nominal guard against inquisitive kids. Maybe have official tours on occasion.
When you have a few, or a few hundred, cases of a new disease to take care of, take the facility out of mothballs and send the patients and medical staff there. Have good electronic communication for all... but no outgoing physical mail, and no one leaves without a clean bill of health and sufficient time in the outgoing-quarantine zone.
Yeah, it would only handle a limited number of patients, and, as with any other measure short of a cure or vaccine, it buys us a limited amount of time. But sometimes that's enough... and it's better than turning the plague loose among the population at large.
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