Ebola epidemic Mobile Laboratory of the Bundeswehr

Bundeswehr with mobile laboratory against Ebola

05/11/2014

Around 5,000 people have died in West Africa so far as a result of the Ebola epidemic. The fight against her disease is now taking place worldwide. Help comes from many countries. The Bundeswehr also wants to contribute a part. A specialized mobile laboratory will help in the affected countries.

Global fight against the disease
Around 14,000 Ebola infections and 5,000 deaths have been recorded in West Africa so far. The fight against the deadly infectious disease is now taking place worldwide. A few days ago, according to a dpa report, health experts and government officials from 34 majority American countries in Cuba agreed on common strategies for combating Ebola. The soldiers of the German Bundeswehr should now make a contribution. They want to support the fight against Ebola in West Africa with a mobile specialized laboratory.

Special Laboratory of the Bundeswehr
The equipment for this lab fits a report of the „world“ according to 25 transport boxes weighing 32 kilos. It will then be used to test whether a patient who has typical Ebola symptoms is actually infected with the virus or is suffering from another disease. According to the data, the emergency services at the Institute for Microbiology of the Bundeswehr in Munich are rehearsing the emergency. Currently there are played in a tent different situations, so that everything sits on site. Among other things, it is about what is the best way to use the lab quickly and safely, or how the helper should behave when someone spills a patient's blood sample.

Laboratory results within four hours
Oberfeldarzt Roman Wölfel explained a dpa message according to: „Our advantage is that we are used to working under the simplest conditions.“ The physician co-developed the mobile laboratory for foreign assignments. According to him, it is the most modern, what there is currently. „We can still do it all here in every booth“, Wölfel. The local aid organizations take the blood samples from the patients to the laboratory, where they are examined by the experts. Within four hours, they know if a patient has Ebola. Then the result goes to the treatment stations, which can not operate such laboratories because of lack of staff and cost reasons.

Team is ready to take off within 72 hours
„The diagnostics make it possible to target the care and quarantine measures currently in place to curb the disease where they really are needed“, Wölfel. The experts protect themselves with appropriate suits against an infection at work. The Bundeswehr team is ready to take off within 72 hours. According to Wölfel, the laboratory can be set up in six to eight hours on site. But it is not yet clear which West African country will go to. Field medical officer Gelimer Genzel, who will be there, is not worried: „I feel very well prepared and know that we can rely on each other as a team.“ (Ad)