Enabling Rapid Response to the 2014–2016 Ebola Epidemic: The Experience and the Results of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani

Abstract

The unprecedented epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa highlighted the need for stronger systems for disease surveillance, response, and prevention worldwide. Tackling an epidemic event today requires a broader view, not only limited to medical management of the patients, but which also includes heroic efforts by clinicians and public health personnel.Since its foundation in 1936, INMI has been devoted to the prevention, diagnosis and care for infectious diseases. In 2009, INMI became a WHO collaborative center for clinical care, diagnosis, response and training on Highly Infectious Diseases. This paper is aimed to present the activities and the challenging issues encountered by INMI during the 2014-2015 EVD outbreak in terms of preparedness and response to the epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic and research controversial aspects of EVD, both in Italy and in the field.

Continuing our work: transplant surgery and surgical oncology in a tertiary referral COVID-19 center

“…In this setting, anesthesiologists could have decided subjectively whether the patient required ICU admission or not. Furthermore, as mentioned above, our hospital is a national referral for the infectious diseases and we have already faced previous emergencies [17,18]; therefore, the rapid adaptation that we have shown in this manuscript could be the result of experience and competences gained over years.…”

“…In this hospital, four departments and five daily outpatient clinics are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of various infectious diseases. Health emergencies, such as SARS in 2003 and Ebola in 2014, have been nationally referred and managed at our hospital previously [17,18]. In the same institution, our general surgery department operates in two daily operative rooms (OR) more than 900 cases per year, including liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantations.…”

INMI/Emergency NGO Italian Laboratory Established In Sierra Leone during Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in West Africa

“…This meeting did not assemble all organisations actively deploying mobile laboratories in the EVD outbreak in West Africa nor did all organisations choose to publish their experiences in this special issue. Additional publications on mobile laboratory deployments have been published in other journals [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

Preface – Emerging Viruses: From Early Detection to Intervention

“…The 2014-2015 Ebola virus outbreak in western Africa illustrates the threat coming from emerging infectious diseases and is perceived by the public as a preeminent global health problem. Nicastri et al present the activities and the challenging issues encountered in terms of medical management of the patients, preparedness and response to the outbreaks, diagnostic and research challenges (Nicastri et al 2016).…”