Renovation and creation of a Biocontainment Unit: the experience of Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana (Pisa, Italy)

Abstract

Infectious diseases are a major public health concern. In recent decades, there has been a succession of bacterial and viral diseases, which when added to the endemic diseases found in certain areas of the world, can become a global health problem. In emergency medicine we talk a lot about Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) preparedness, but the main focus today is bio-preparedness. Therefore, especially after the Ebola experience, much investment has been made in the development of Biocontainment Units (BCUs). At present, in Italy there are no national realities that have experimented the construction of a completely new biocontainment units detached from the Emergency Department (ED) RNPP-funded. Given this, the project of the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana (AOUP) is to make renovations on existing ED structure and build an entire new facility for biocontainment.