However, this information was from what now appears to be first-generation cases from a point source, but at the time it seems that a second generation, and perhaps a third generation, of cases was already reported in the incubation period, and this generation appears to have included health workers. Health worker infections are an ominous finding in any emerging infection. Front-line health workers can be initially at risk and infected when they examine and treat patients who present with a respiratory infection; if handwashing or other infection prevention and control measures are not in place, these health workers are at great risk of infection and become the inadvertent carriers to patients who are in hospital for other diseases and treatments, family members, and the community. Early in the SARS coronavirus outbreak, frontline health workers became infected, which amplified transmission to patients in hospitals where outbreaks were occurring. 4 Early evidence from the initial MERS outbreaks suggested that health workers were likewise being infected, but that their infections were less severe than those of patients in hospitals who became infected and had comorbidities such as diabetes or chronic respiratory disease. 5

Today, the epidemiology of both SARS and MERS viruses is mostly understood, and the same will be true for the current outbreak of 2019-nCoV if data continue to be freely shared and used to provide realtime guidance. These Articles and others being rapidly disseminated and shared will have a major role in assuring that this global collaboration occurs.