[ProtectOurFreedom]

Every country is going to need thousands of "Slammers"...

Fort Detrick offers a look inside 'slammer'

Mar. 18, 2004

In official parlance, the room is called the BSL-4 Patient Isolation Suite. Unofficially, it's called "the slammer." Located at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Frederick's sprawling Fort Detrick, "the slammer" is made up of two, 180-square-foot patient care rooms and a 300-square-foot treatment room. It was here that a USAMRIID scientist who recently was feared to be exposed to a weakened form of the Ebola virus was housed for 21 days between Feb. 12 and March 3.

The scientist, whose name has not been released, is in good health, according to Detrick officials.

But to make sure she didn't pose a threat to her family, friends or anyone else in the Frederick community, doctors deemed it necessary to isolate her in "the slammer," so nicknamed for the crashing sound a door leading into the room makes when closed.

"There's something very final about the way that closes," USAMRIID Operational Medicine Division Containment Care Chief Col. James W. Martin, said as he demonstrated the door.

This week, Detrick officials opened the patient isolation suite to the media for a look inside. The facility is the only one in the country that can operate at biosafety level four, the highest risk level for biological agents.

The suite has been used 20 times since 1972 for isolating patients following a potential exposure in one of Detrick's many laboratories.

According to "The Hot Zone," people just about go insane in the biohazard level 4 isolation facility for three weeks.

[Covenantor]

Very interesting dateline of that article.

Mar. 18, 2004

USAMRIID at Fort Detrick, Fredrick, Maryland tends to stay out of the news, so I wonder what impetus lead to this article getting published on that date.

[exDemMom]

In official parlance, the room is called the BSL-4 Patient Isolation Suite. Unofficially, it's called "the slammer." Located at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Frederick's sprawling Fort Detrick, "the slammer" is made up of two, 180-square-foot patient care rooms and a 300-square-foot treatment room. It was here that a USAMRIID scientist who recently was feared to be exposed to a weakened form of the Ebola virus was housed for 21 days between Feb. 12 and March 3.

Sadly, the slammer no longer exists.