Two new bio-containment pods have been put on stand-by at Vancouver International Airport as part of an effort to contain highly infectious diseases before they spread.
Produced by the Norwegian company EpiGuard AS, the EpiShuttle pods resemble larger versions of neo-natal incubators used to keep pre-term babies warm.
Only instead of containing heat, the enclosed structures seal off the spread of dangerous pathogens like the Ebola virus or something that has yet to be discovered, according to a press release from the Fraser Health Authority.
The pods can then be loaded onto ambulances, helicopters and airplanes to more safely shuttle highly infectious patients to and from B.C.’s Biocontainment Treatment Centre at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
Inside the pod, patients lie on an adjustable bed as air is exchanged 15 times per hour. Airtight sealed ports include built-in gloves so medical workers can treat patients while avoiding cross-contamination. Another port can act as a sluice bag to transfer equipment, food or medicine inside the pod. All of the ports can withstand rapid decompression of an airplane cabin, says the company.
Tracie Jones, who manages the BC Biocontainment Treatment and Provincial Training Centre and supports emergency preparedness for Fraser Health, said in a statement that she and several medical workers recently completed training on the pods at an airport facility.
Jones said the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa spurred both the creation of B.C.'s Biocontainment Treatment Centre and the purchase of the containment pods.
“We train and plan for what we do and do not know,” said Jones.
The announcement comes as an unidentified illness sweeps across northwestern Congo, killing more than 50 people over the past five weeks.
The outbreaks in two distant villages in Congo’s Equateur province began on Jan. 21, and include 419 cases and 53 deaths, as of Feb. 28.
— With files from the Associated Press, via the Canadian Press
