carriage of contagious passengers

[taxying]

Anyone care to comment on the carriage of passengers from offshore with possible or suspected contagious diseases (not limited to but not excluding SARS , H5N1 and now swine flu symptoms.) Accept or not accept ? With other passengers or without ? Precautions that your company takes ? What does the Air Ambulance community do ?

[Phil77]

Obviously not with other passengers on board!
Crew would have to wear protective gear and the aircraft would need to be scrubbed for a few hours afterward. I worked as a paramedic a few years back and transported my fair share of patients with contagious diseases (Meningitis, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis etc.), on the road that is, but that can't be too different from an airborne evacuation (the scrubbing part is the worst btw.).
I suggest a separating wall or thick curtain between the pax and the cockpit, it's quite hard to talk through that mask.

[unstable load]

We have been carrying quite a few chicken pox cases recently.
The pilots get to wear a lovely tyvek suit, gloves, goggles and mask while the seats in the back are covered with plastic.
The machine is sprayed with disinfectant after landing and left to stand out of the way for 2 hours then it it's cleaned by the guys with gloves, suits and mask etc.

So far no-one at work has caught it.

I would say definitely NO other pax unless also suspected infected and use common sense like masks, gloves etc and a good strong disinfectant.

[Matthew Parsons]

There's a full face shield gas mask available. Don't know if its commercially available. It doesn't fog, it doesn't obscure your vision, it can be plugged into your comm system, you can drink while wearing it, very comfortable. It also protects you if you're in the vicinity of a fire with carbon fiber composites, if you have the correct filter.

With gas masks, the filter type is very important. The wrong one may not work.

[taxying]

any advice on constructing or buying a "barrier" that could isolate the cockpit from the cabin....specifically for the S76.

Can it be done 100% ie air tight seal between the two compartments ?

[Flying Bull]

Fly it sling loaded :E

Greetings Flying Bull

[Phil77]

IMHO a full face mask or "airtight" seal to the cockpit is a little much. Most infectious diseases are transmitted through aerosolized droplets (coughing, sneezing e.g.), touching of infected persons skin, or sexually.
Considering that the pilot does not necessary have to touch the patient - or even talk to - the risk of infection in a controlled environment it rather slim. So if the patient and personnel are wearing a simple mask, gloves and coverall (incl. hood and maybe safety googles when caring for the patient) and follow simple precautions, you should be fine.

[Matthew Parsons]

Phil, in my experience, rotting flesh, burnt flesh and passed gas very quickly circulate to the cockpit. If the suspected disease is sufficient for the caregivers to protect themselves from airborne spread, then I think the pilot should as well. The full face mask is a little much in some circumstances, but it's better to have more protection than insufficient protection, and the one I'm referring to integrates extremely well with helmets, comms, and flying duties. We got into this when SARS was a concern. big concern for one hospital when a SAR helicopter showed up during the SARS outbreak. Definite over-reaction.

[Phil77]

Ok, point taken as far as HEMS goes.
But the initial question was if a patient has to be transported from an oil rig and he/she has been diagnosed. The carriage in a controlled environment like that is pretty straight forward I think.

I wasn't judging the usefulness of the mask you where referring too, I was more arguing in the lines of: nice to have, but the patient doesn't have to wait/suffer because my new face mask has a 3-day delivery... ;)
All I'm saying is, that the majority of the cases probably can be dealt with safely, with the normal protective gear that ground units use.

[PlasticCabDriver]

This sort of protective gear?

fcmys5iLHt8

[Matthew Parsons]

In that case, Phil, I agree with you. There are sometimes when what is best for the patient is not best for the crew. If I thought there was a chance I was going to get sick and then better, I'd risk the flight without gear. If I saw a good chance of getting sick with low chance of surviving, then I'd reconsider doing the flight without protective gear.

[Spheriflex]

To say it with Winnie the Pooh's thought, who's walking through the wood with his little friend Piglet. ''If the pig sneezes, he's fu***ng dead!''

Spheri.

http://3.media.tumblr.com/2DVAvics1mxhf0b3C9G7rNdoo1_500.jpg