ESA satellite to provide better emergency response service
The European Space Agency (ESA) is supporting an emergency response system designed to help European governments coordinate their actions during emergencies and save lives. By identifying and mapping occurrences such as hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, as well as medical emergencies, the service will communicate vital information to agencies that will be able to react to disaster scenarios more quickly and efficiently. The Health Early Warning System (HEWS) will establish a satellite communication network to survey and monitor risk indicators. It will collect and analyse data before distributing it to emergency teams in the field. According to the space agency, the advantage of the system over others is that it is satellite-based. So whereas disasters may disrupt or even destroy local infrastructure, satellites in space are immune to such problems. The system will be tested in two different exercise scenarios. The first test will involve a simulated infectious disease incident in Africa. Field teams will be deployed by the local ministries of health, international organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The scenario will require them to assess the current situation and deploy a mobile laboratory. Based on field reports, a practice emergency will be declared. HEWS will then provide real-time reporting from the various locations and provide insight into how the epidemic is developing. A response will then be organised and feedback provided to mobile teams on road access, water, food, drugs, and medical disposables. The second scenario will stimulate a terrorist attack in a European capital city. As the resulting confusion leads to traffic jams and saturation of the mobile telephone network, the work of the many civil protection and health operators, who are all entering the scene at the same time, will be hindered by a lack of coordination and field information, particularly on decontamination measures and treatment protocols. HEWS will enable civil protection to supply this information and coordinate the field teams adequately. The project is co-financed by the ESA as part of its Health and Telemedicine via Satellite Programme.