BERLIN
Germany has prepared a special Airbus A340-300 to safely transfer Ebola patients and infected international health workers from Western African countries to receive treatment abroad.
Germany’s Health Minister Hermann Groehe said during an inauguration ceremony of the aircraft at Berlin’s Tegel airport on Thursday the aircraft would make a "very important contribution" to efforts to fight Ebola.
He praised German volunteers who had received training to work in Ebola-hit West African countries and said any who may become infected will be immediately returned to Germany to receive the best available medical treatment.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier acknowledged that the international community has been late to respond to the Ebola crisis.
He thanked the Robert Koch Institute, which specializes in infectious diseases, and the Lufthansa company for designing the special "medivac" aircraft, completing it in eight weeks.
The plane has an isolation unit, built-in treatment facilities and will be able to transfer one Ebola patient at a time with two doctors and two additional health workers on board.
About 600 Ebola cases were reported in the three most-affected West African countries in the past week with the total number of cases nearing 16,000, according to the World Health Organization.
A total of 15,935 cases have been confirmed, with 5,689 reported deaths in the six affected countries - Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Spain and the U.S. - and two previously affected countries - Nigeria and Senegal - up to November 23, the organization said in a report on Wednesday.
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