Preparing at the Local Level for Events Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction

摘要

To the Editor: The use of hi-jacked airplanes in the attacks on theWorld Trade Center and the Pentagonon September 11, 2001, clearly illus-trated the immediate and massivedestruction that can result from a well-orchestrated, long-planned, and pur-poseful terrorist act. Weapons of massdestruction (WMD) events (i.e., bio-logical, nuclear, or chemical attacks)present different challenges than otherincidents involving mass casualties(e.g., chemical spills, transportationmishaps, or natural disasters). Personsinvolved in a biological weaponsattack, for example, may take days todevelop symptoms and seek medicalcare (1); a large geographic area maybe affected, or persons may travel longdistances and unwittingly infect oth-ers, including hospital personnel (2).Furthermore, traditional hazardousmaterials and emergency medical pro-cedures may be inadequate to respondto a WMD event (3–5). As events ofSeptember 11 and its aftermath makeclear, medical public health systemswere not optimally prepared. Aneffective response to a WMD eventfocuses on two key areas: joint effortsbetween the medical community andpublic health agencies and bettertrained and coordinated first respond-ers (i.e., law enforcement, publicsafety, hospital personnel, and publichealth officials) (1–3).