Ebola: Italian infected will arrive tomorrow morning on a KC-767 of the AM

24/11/14

The landing at Pratica di Mare (RM) of the Boeing KC-767 of the Italian Air Force is scheduled for tomorrow morning and will bring back to Italy the Italian doctor of the NGO Emergency who tested positive for the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.

The patient, who will travel inside a special isolated aviation-transportable stretcher, will be assisted during the transfer flight by a medical team of the Air Force specialized in bio-containment.

Waiting for the doctor infected on the track there will be an ambulance from the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute in Rome, equipped with bio-containment. We will then proceed to the transfer, always in a state of isolation, of the patient from the transportable stretcher to that of the ambulance, which will then depart for Spallanzani.

The ability to carry out transport of highly infectious patients through the use of special isolated stretchers is a peculiarity held in Europe exclusively by the Air Force and the Royal Air Force. The Air Force has developed the capacity for aero-medical evacuation in bio-containment since the 2005, working closely with both the Ministry of Health and the Civil Protection Department; this capacity is based on the use of special “ATI” (Aircraft Transport Isolator) airborne stretchers and the smaller “STI” (Stretcher Transit Isolator) terrestrial systems, which are essential when the patient is transferred from the aircraft to the ambulance. Long-haul "air-hold" air transport is currently carried out on C-130 J "Hercules", C-27 J "Spartan" and KC-767 aircraft.

Source: Public Information Office AM