National Preparedness: Countermeasures for Thermal Burns

摘要

Multiple organizations have raised concerns about HHSs ability to work with industry to successfully develop and acquire medical countermeasures to respond to CBRN incidents and other terrorist threats, and since 2004 congressional committees have held several hearings to assess HHSs medical countermeasure development and acquisition efforts. You requested that we examine whether HHS has developed and acquired medical countermeasures that address thermal burn injuries that would result from conventional explosives or radiological or nuclear devices. Our review addresses (1) the medical countermeasures in the SNS that would address thermal burns, (2) the steps HHS has taken to obtain information about and inform industry of its interest in additional countermeasures for thermal burns, and (3) the medical countermeasures in the pipeline for development and acquisition into the SNS that could serve to address thermal burns. To identify the medical countermeasures in the SNS that would address thermal burns, we reviewed relevant HHS documents, such as risk assessments, requirements papers, documentation of the contents of the SNS and related gap analyses, and other HHS information about the types of medical countermeasures needed and the departments prioritization of countermeasures for thermal burns.