Cue the Zombie Apocalypse Headlines: Canada Is Figuring Out How to Transport Very Infectious People

When the zombie outbreak begins, you can count on Canada.

The Department of National Defense is starting a program that would allow it to quarantine and transport infected persons from anywhere in the globe to a safe third location.

The program has been dubbed Highly Infectious Disease Patient Aeromedical Evacuation Project (HIDPAE) and the government is trying to figure out how to make it happen.

A request for information, posted to a Government of Canada website, is asking prospective partners to submit plans on what the possible project could look like.

The military's plan is to allow the "evacuation of patients with highly infectious deseases [sic] to a third location from operational zones both overseas and continental." It adds that the project would be intended to be used in conjunction with Canadian allies, as well.

The project will likely look like the type of isolation chambers that are normally found in hospitals. But, by installing them in military aircraft, it gives the Canadian government the ability to more easily get people to treatment or, alternatively, move infectious people out of populated zones and into isolation.

While there's only been a handful of situations where this sort of capacity has been needed in the past several years, it could prove useful in the event of another another fast-spreading respiratory illness outbreak, like SARS, or for a biological or chemical attack.

Or, of course, if the zombie apocalypse comes.

VICE News asked the Department of National Defense whether this program would be deployed in the event of a zombie outbreak, but a spokesperson said that decision would ultimately be left to the government.

It appears as though Canada's solution would allow for more large-scale transportation missions.

A spokesperson for the Canadian military said that they are looking for a "roll on, roll off" system that could fit on larger transport aircraft like the CC-130J Hercules and the CC-177 Globemaster III, but also on the air force's Chinook helicopters.

The government anticipates that this sort of platform, which would likely be installed on a military transport plane, would include "the ability to protect the medical team, crew and aircraft from contamination by the patient thru physical contact or airborne vectors."

The spokesperson was vague on what infrastructure the Canadian military currently owns to deal with this sort of issue, saying just that the air force has an "interim ability, but requires a more robust solution."

When several Americans were infected with the Ebola virus last year, a private jet, retrofitted with an isolation chamber, was dispatched to bring them stateside. That jet only ferried one patient at a time — the Canadian project would move at least two at a time, according to the government document.

The Department of National Defense expects the units will be operational within two years.

Follow Justin Ling on Twitter: @justin_ling

Image via Flickr user: Gianluca Ramalho Misiti