C-130J transports patient with infectious disease

On Monday 8 March, the aircraft from the 46th Air Base in Pisa, carrying the Air Force’s Aeromedical Isolation Unit, was en route from Catania to Pratica di Mare. The C-130J aircraft, before reaching Catania, had already landed at the military airport at Pratica di Mare (Rome) to take on board the Air Medical Isolation Unit of the Medical Service of the Italian Air Force’s Logistics Command, comprising military personnel including medical officers and nurses trained for this type of emergency, equipped with a specialised ‘Aircraft Transit Isolators (ATI)’ stretcher. The ATI is an enclosed stretcher for the isolated air transport of infectious patients or those contaminated by biological agents; it comprises high-efficiency filters operating at negative internal pressure and consists essentially of an aluminium frame, a PVC lining with sleeves and face masks for treating the patient, two filters and a power supply system. This equipment is required for patients suffering from highly contagious and transmissible infectious diseases, including, for example, haemorrhagic fevers, SARS and cholera. The Italian Air Force’s medical bio-containment capability was established through coordination between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Civil Protection Department. The medical and paramedical staff are drawn from the Pratica di Mare Experimental Flight Centre and the Logistics Command, Medical Service, under the coordination of the Pratica di Mare Main Infirmary. This type of activity represents an area of excellence for the Italian Air Force, which is among the few in the world capable of carrying out such transports using suitable equipment and qualified, regularly trained personnel. Collaborative arrangements have also been established with the armed forces of other countries (the USA and the UK), which currently have similar bio-containment systems at their disposal, with a view to possible involvement in operational theatres where ‘joint’ and ‘combined’ operations are envisaged. Upon its return to Pratica di Mare Airport, the ATI stretcher in question will undergo a series of procedures to decontaminate it, so that it is ready for future use should the need arise. This actual transport of highly infectious patients is the fifth carried out by the Italian Air Force. The first took place in January 2006, transporting a highly contagious patient from Sassari to Milan Linate, for subsequent admission to Sondalo Hospital (Sondrio); the second in May 2007 for a patient with a suspected highly infectious condition from Turin to Rome, for subsequent admission to the ‘Spallanzani’ Hospital in Rome; the third in July 2007 for a patient suffering from a severe form of pulmonary tuberculosis resistant to drug therapies and highly infectious, transferred from Alghero Airport to Orio al Serio Airport (Bergamo), for subsequent admission to Sondalo Hospital. The fourth took place in October 2009, involving a patient with suspected contagious haemorrhagic fever who was transported from Turin to Rome and subsequently taken to the ‘Spallanzani’ Hospital in Rome. Multimedia Contributions Video: Tg2 of 08/03/2010 at 18:50