Decontamination measures to restore facilities and the environment after a natural or deliberate re-lease of pathogenic microorganisms – DEFERM

The aim of the project is work along different case scenarios in order to address concrete proce-dures and processes of first responders with actual political focus based on threats caused by pathogenic microorganisms. The scenarios include accidental, deliberate or natural release. This focus grants us the possibility to draw on German and French expertise on first responder side and harmonize procedures between the first responders. We will address one of the capability chal-lenges mentioned frequently after exercises and also in EU projects such as FIRE-IN (www.fire-in.eu). First responders are in the spotlight of this project. Main focus will be on the recovery phase including decontamination measures to restore facilities and the environment, an aspect that is important but still a bottle neck in operations. So far, no clear recommendations or standard opera-tional procedures have been developed for such scenarios in Europe. In order to fit that goal, the project addresses two interconnected issues: the improvement of operational processes and the (further) development of technical methods or devices for detection and decontamination. The op-erational processes themselves will be explored in two directions. On the one hand, based on the two scenarios, their embedding in institutional and legal structures of biological emergency response will be examined in a Franco-German comparison (referring to responsibilities, internal alarm chains, population warning, reporting channels, deployment of the operational organisation etc.). At the other hand the safety culture of the responsible first responders will be investigated. Referring to the technological developments in automated detection, mirocfluidic cartridges based on nucleic acid analysis will allow for rapid, sensitive and specific identification and quantification of the pathogens. This enables the development and evaluation of whole procedures and technical processes focussed on the operational tactical part and the approach in a societal dimension. For the operational tactical level to pave the ground for a larger test scale on a joint French-German exercise, learning about procedures, basic investigations will be performed in small up to large work space. The work will be focused on the relevant procedures for the CBRNE scenarios “technical accident during transportation of pathogens” and “accidental release of pathogens from a production facility”. The aim is to identify relevant parameters for the development of operational process data. This will help to elaborate a parameter map for decontamination processes, in order to respond adequately to biological threats. Additionally, procedures for special decontamination requirements, like different materials in sensitive rooms to be recovered, as well as vehicle decon-tamination (here we use existing equipment) will be developed and evaluated in a test environment. Finally, a scale-up to a large room will be investigated, and procedures will also be developed and evaluated in a test environment in order to develop recommendations to be applied in possible scenarios posing biological threats.