Across the globe, there are numerous islands where visitors should exercise extreme caution - or avoid setting foot altogether. Often, the danger comes from wildlife, such as venomous snakes. In other cases, isolated communities have withdrawn to parts of these islands, living cut off from the outside world and unwilling to be disturbed. Encounters with such groups have sometimes resulted in attacks, for example, with poisoned arrows.
Most people are unaware that in Germany - specifically in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - there is an island whose visit can turn deadly. As reported by the “Merkur,” “almost no one” is allowed to set foot on this island. Riems lies in the southwestern part of the Greifswalder Bodden, not far from the popular holiday destination of Rügen.
But what makes Riems so incredibly dangerous? The reason is that the island hosts what is likely the world’s oldest virological research facility. The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) was established there as early as 1910. Nearly the entire island - about 1,200 meters long and roughly 300 meters wide - is covered by FLI buildings. The island is secured by fences several meters high and even barbed wire, writes “Ruhr24.de.” Access controls and security checkpoints, including radar systems and surveillance cameras, are also in place. On the nearby mainland, people refer to it as the “most dangerous island in the world” or the “Alcatraz of killer viruses,” according to “t-online.”
Transmissible infections are being researched
Because the buildings on the island, which belong to the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, conduct research on transmissible infections between animals and humans. According to "Ruhr24.de," the focus is primarily on the health and welfare of agricultural livestock - and protecting humans from so-called zoonoses. These zoonoses are infections caused by pathogens that can infect both humans and animals.
The FLI conducts research there on diseases such as Ebola, rabies, and swine fever. For this purpose, the island hosts high-security laboratories, as these pathogens can pose serious dangers to humans and therefore should not leave the island. Consequently, the highest security level applies on Riems, as the FLI explains, because “for some of these pathogens […] neither vaccines nor treatments are available.” On their way through the facility, FLI employees also encounter numerous warning signs, as "t-online" reports. One of these reads, for example, “animal disease quarantine zone.”
How employee protection is ensured
For the special protection of the people conducting research on site across various subjects, the island offers "special laboratories and animal housing complexes" that are under constant surveillance, according to "Ruhr24.de." This includes maintaining the buildings under negative pressure, filtering both exhaust and supply air, and heating wastewater before it is sent to a treatment plant. The research center is hermetically sealed off from the outside world, reports "t-online."
Unique research institute in Europe
According to the "Merkur," there are only two other comparable research centers worldwide where similar pathogens are studied under the highest safety level, as is the case in Riems. These are located in Winnipeg, Canada, and Geelong, Australia - which makes the island of Riems a unique facility in Europe.