Skip to main content

Improving Civilian Medical Response to Chemical or Biological Terrorist Incidents Interim Report on Current Capabilities (1998) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

3 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 49-52

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 49...
... A major mission of public health departments is prompt identification and suppression of infectious disease outbreaks, and poison control centers deal with poisonings from both chemical and biological sources on a daily basis. It would be a serious tactical and strategic mistake to ignore (and possibly undermine)
Read the entire page →
From page 50...
... For that reason, the Metropolitan Medical Strike Teams being organized and equipped by the Public Health Service may be the most useful federal help in managing the medical consequences of a chemical attack. Similar help from deployable military teams will be optimal only if intelligence allows for predeployment or the attack occurs near the team's home base.
Read the entire page →
From page 51...
... The report therefore concludes with the following eight recommendations involving potentially simpler, faster, or less expensive mechanisms than research and development of new technology: Recommendation I: Provide federal financial support for improvements in state and local surveillance infrastructure namely poison control centers and communicable disease programs, including expansion of the CDC Emerging Infections Initiatives.
Read the entire page →
From page 52...
... , to purchase appropriate personal protective equipment and expandable decontamination facilities and train emergency department personnel in their use. Recommendation 7: Supplement existing state and federal training initiatives with a program to incorporate existing information on possible chemical or biological terror agents and their treatment into the manuals, SOPs, and reference libraries of first responders, emergency departments, ant!
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • poison control
  • biological agent
  • chemical attack
  • metropolitan medical
  • biological agents

  • civilian medical
  • protective equipment
  • public safety
  • health departments
  • strike teams

  • major metropolitan
  • medical response
  • personal protective
  • infectious disease
  • agent incidents

  • chemical agents
  • medical strike
  • systematically collected
  • toxic chemicals
  • reportable diseases

  • cdc emerging
  • current capabilities
  • experience following
  • empirically grounded
  • purposefully introduced

  • eight recommendations
  • medical responses
  • improving medical
  • ethical reasons
  • providing federal


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.