Posted on Feb 2, 2015
Air Force getting 25 isolation units for contagious patients
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From: Air Force Times
The Ebola outbreak has subsided but not before becoming the catalyst for the Air Force's development of a larger system to isolate highly contagious patients during air transport.
By April, the Air Force is expected to have 25 specialized isolation modules that can be loaded on C-17 and C-130 cargo planes to transport patients with highly contagious diseases.
The Transportation Isolation Units are bigger than the Aeromedical Biological Containment System, which is not designed to fit on Air Force cargo aircraft and can only transport one patient at a time, officials said.
"When we first developed that, what we had in mind was the SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] epidemic," said Dr. Charles Bass, of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. "We didn't use it in the SARS epidemic. It was used in the evacuation of Ebola patients."
While the effort to build the new isolation system was inspired by the most recent Ebola outbreak,the system is meant to be used for more than just transporting Ebola patients, said Bass, branch chief of the protection and hazard mitigation branch, chemical and biological technologies department
"This is an enduring capability we're looking for and so it's for potential issues in the future: Whether it is a pandemic that we are responding to or whether it is biological warfare," Bass said, "It is designed as an isolation unit that allows servicemen to be evacuated in Air Force aircraft."
The module "provides a barrier within the aircraft to prevent the spread of diseases," said Maj. Kathleen Grimm, of Air Mobility Command. "So if you have an infectious patient, the infection won't spread to others within the aircraft. It protects our loadmasters; it protects our flying crew and those that are outside of the system.''
Like a hospital room, air flows into the isolation units from the outside to keep any airborne diseases from escaping, said Grimm, branch chief of aeromedical evacuations, standards evaluations division. That air is filtered twice before being expelled.
The new isolation system can carry up to four patients, based on the type of disease patients have and the level of medical care they need, said Maj. William Thoms, also of Air Mobility Command.
"The system is modular, so each module has several different configurations," said Thoms, chief of clinical operations of the enroute medical care division. "One module can have three litters. The second configuration is four seats. Or the third configuration will be two seats and one litter."
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/02/02/air-force-getting-25-isolation-units-for-contagious-patients/22522535/
The Ebola outbreak has subsided but not before becoming the catalyst for the Air Force's development of a larger system to isolate highly contagious patients during air transport.
By April, the Air Force is expected to have 25 specialized isolation modules that can be loaded on C-17 and C-130 cargo planes to transport patients with highly contagious diseases.
The Transportation Isolation Units are bigger than the Aeromedical Biological Containment System, which is not designed to fit on Air Force cargo aircraft and can only transport one patient at a time, officials said.
"When we first developed that, what we had in mind was the SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] epidemic," said Dr. Charles Bass, of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. "We didn't use it in the SARS epidemic. It was used in the evacuation of Ebola patients."
While the effort to build the new isolation system was inspired by the most recent Ebola outbreak,the system is meant to be used for more than just transporting Ebola patients, said Bass, branch chief of the protection and hazard mitigation branch, chemical and biological technologies department
"This is an enduring capability we're looking for and so it's for potential issues in the future: Whether it is a pandemic that we are responding to or whether it is biological warfare," Bass said, "It is designed as an isolation unit that allows servicemen to be evacuated in Air Force aircraft."
The module "provides a barrier within the aircraft to prevent the spread of diseases," said Maj. Kathleen Grimm, of Air Mobility Command. "So if you have an infectious patient, the infection won't spread to others within the aircraft. It protects our loadmasters; it protects our flying crew and those that are outside of the system.''
Like a hospital room, air flows into the isolation units from the outside to keep any airborne diseases from escaping, said Grimm, branch chief of aeromedical evacuations, standards evaluations division. That air is filtered twice before being expelled.
The new isolation system can carry up to four patients, based on the type of disease patients have and the level of medical care they need, said Maj. William Thoms, also of Air Mobility Command.
"The system is modular, so each module has several different configurations," said Thoms, chief of clinical operations of the enroute medical care division. "One module can have three litters. The second configuration is four seats. Or the third configuration will be two seats and one litter."
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/02/02/air-force-getting-25-isolation-units-for-contagious-patients/22522535/
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