Ebola nurse flown from Sardinia
The Italian Air Force has reported on a mission to transport a nurse infected with Ebola virus disease from Sassari on the island of Sardinia to Rome on the Italian mainland.
The Italian Air Force has reported on a mission to transport a nurse infected with Ebola virus disease from Sassari on the island of Sardinia to Rome on the Italian mainland. At the request of the Ministry of Health, the 46th Air Brigade, Pisa, dispatched a C-130 plane to Pratica di Mare (Rome), where an aircraft transport isolator (ATI) was loaded onboard, accompanied by Air Force medical staff specialising in the management and transport of highly infectious patients. The aircraft then flew to Alghero, Sardinia, where the patient was boarded. After a return flight to Rome, the man was transferred to a ground ambulance for onward transport to Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital in Rome.
The Air Force developed the ability to perform bio-secure aeromedical evacuations in 2005, working closely with both the Ministry of Health and the Department of Civil Protection. It uses aircraft transport isolators, along with smaller stretcher transit isolators for transferring patients from aircraft to ground vehicles.