What would happen if one of our compatriots abroad was infected? Fortunately, or foresight, we have a unique ability worldwide.
(Andrea Pinto) Italy, together with Great Britain and the United States it is the only nation in the world which has a very special and essential ability in modern times, safe air transport in bio-containment. A capacity offered byair Force which since 2006 has started a series of courses and exercises with the Spallanzani hospitals in Rome and Sacco in Milan. The air transport activity with bio-containment structure is one of the excellence of our military aviation, little known and which should instead be a reason for pride and above all gratitude for those who in the past thought and then implemented an indispensable ability , which has become necessary today.
The air transport of highly infectious patients is a capability of the Air Force, as mentioned, unique in the international panorama.
The transport of infectious patients (affected by Ebola, SARS, TBC, Dengue, Monkeypox etc.), if carried out with common procedures and ordinary aircraft, exposes the risk of spreading the infection globally.
In these cases, transportation is only possible through the use of special air-transportable insulation systems and highly qualified and trained personnel who are able to guarantee high safety standards.
The Air Force has developed aero-medical evacuation capacity since 2005 and is the only European air force, together with the British Royal Air Force, to have similar capacity.
For transportation in specialized hospitals in Italy there are the bio-containment means of the Italian Red Cross. Special ambulances equipped with stretchers called Isoarc, with high biocontainment capacity and equipped with special filters with the highest level of protection. These are the means that the Italian Red Cross, the Public Health Department, exclusively has throughout Europe and which it has already deployed in the past to deal with suspected cases of ebola arriving at Fiumicino airport.
Wuhan virus in China
A virus of which the way to attack and eradicate it is still unknown and which has already caused 25 deaths and hundreds of infected people. In China two cities have been quarantined, possible pharmaceutical remedies are being studied, while the World Health Organization meeting yesterday declared that there is no "worldwide danger".
The symptoms are similar to that of a common seasonal flu with fever, cough, breathing difficulties and in severe cases pneumonia or bronchitis that become lethal for the weakest who already suffer from respiratory diseases.
Italy has already launched a security channel at Fiumicino airport where passengers arriving from China are checked with a fever detection scanner.
Experts point out that there have never been vaccines against coronaviruses, the family to which the new infectious agent from Wuhan also belongs, similar to SARS and MERS (Middle Eastern syndrome that has spread to the Arabian Peninsula). Most people infected with these pathogens recover spontaneously. Transmission occurs from one infected person to another through saliva, coughing and sneezing, and touching objects contaminated with the virus. The incubation, Corsera writes, is 5-6 days and the symptoms present within the tenth day. Hand washing for 20 seconds is essential, even with the use of normal soap.
All coronaviruses come from animal reservoirs and the one born in Wuhan would have passed from bat to snake and then to man due to the promiscuity of contacts in the fish and live animal market of the Chinese city.