Relief units and firefighters, police, rescue services and disaster management emergency physicians are all too familiar with the process of caring for patients who have become ill, or were injured by contact with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) agents, according to the German Society for Disaster Medicine (DGKM).
However, “we are rarely confronted with the tasks of medical mission management and medical care in a mass casualty of CBRN-contaminated patients,” said Dr. Leo Latasch, president of DGKM, in an opening statement for the scientific society’s first DGKM-CBRN Forum being held on May 5 in Berlin, Germany.
The forum’s focus on “this important, viable topic of CBRN-related medical protection,” Latasch said, is aimed at helping to forge solutions for such situations.
The DGKM, which stands for Deutsche Gesellschaft für KatastrophenMedizin, was founded in 1980 as an independent scientific society that provides expertise to the German government. Members of the DGKM act as voluntary experts for Germany’s Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), as well as to other authorities and institutions.
Specifically, DGKM members from around the globe work toward improving prevention, emergency and disaster medical treatment, rehabilitation and risk management to protect people’s lives, health, property and the environment. The group’s mission statement cites its combined humanitarian ideas, modern knowledge and management methods as helping to make deployed assistance — even under extreme conditions — more efficient in emergencies and disasters, “as well as to enable joint action of all aid workers in mutual esteem.”
The purpose of the DGKM-CBRN Forum is to provide a platform of exchange for experts and scientists working in the field of CBRN protection and defense, the DGKM Board told Homeland Preparedness News this week in emailed responses to several questions.
“The DGKM expects to enhance the discussion on methods to counteract CBRN threats and to give examples for solutions,” according to the board.
For instance, one of the forum’s featured speakers is Laura Cochrane, Director of medical and clinical affairs at London’s Emergent Countermeasures International Ltd., a subsidiary of the Gaithersburg, Md.-headquartered Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a global life sciences company focused on providing specialty products for civilian and military populations that address accidental, intentional and naturally occurring public health threats.
Cochrane is scheduled to discuss “Biomedical Countermeasures to Category A Biological Agents” during the May 5 forum. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Category A lists high-priority, biological agents that pose a risk to national security because they are easily transmitted or disseminated between people; result in high death rates; could cause public panic and social disruption; and require special action for public health preparedness.
Category A agents and diseases include anthrax, botulism, plague (Yersinia pestis), smallpox, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and Lassa, according to the CDC.
Cochrane is also expected to highlight a chemical warfare countermeasure in Emergent’s trademarked RSDL Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion Kit, which is intended to remove or neutralize chemical warfare agents and T-2 Toxin from the skin.
RSDL, which already has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, the Australian Therapeutics Goods Administration, and the Israel Ministry of Health, also has been procured or recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense, among others, and has been certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Another notable speaker scheduled during the DGKM-CBRN Forum is Jürgen Schreiber, Secretary General of DGKM, who will discuss “Medical Management in CRN Casualties” and supply related process chain orientation.
Schreiber, according to his LinkedIn page, is also CEO of NOKRIMA, an emergency and crisis management consultancy in the Bremen Area of Germany. He has been a DGKM leader since 2012 and said the group “supports scientific and practical aspects of disaster medicine including emergency medicine.”
DGKM is the corresponding organization for medical as well as pharmaceutical concerns in regard to disaster medicine in Germany, Schreiber explains on LinkedIn. “It aims to assist in finding solutions for problems in the field of tactical and operational response to catastrophes. The primary objective is to provide the optimal medical assistance for a multitude of people injured, adversely affected or/and victims of major disasters.”
As the managing director and proprietor of NOKRIMA since its founding in 2005, Schreiber said he is a consultant, adviser, lecturer and trainer in fire and rescue education, emergency management, civil protection, disaster relief, emergency and crisis management, and business continuity planning.
“As a lecturer and instructor, I train professionals and managerial staff in the fields of command and control, staff management, operational tactics and medical treatment in situations with mass casualties of injured as well as under CBRN conditions,” according to Schreiber’s profile.
Regularly scheduled forum
The May 5 DGKM-CBRN Forum is planned as the initial “start-up point of an ongoing discussion” about medical CBRN-protection and defense issues, the DGKM Board said. “Going forward, the event will take place every two years”.
Generally, a certain amount of awareness for CBRN attacks currently exists in Germany that has resulted in several research projects and the development of both pilot and follow-up training courses for first responders — such as EMS personnel, fire and rescue service workers, and police — and for others supported by Germany’s BBK and its partners like the DGKM, the DGKM Board said.
“But there are further necessities to improve equipment, operational and tactical measures and to enhance training capacities,” the DGKM Board said.
Thus far, the DGKM Board added, two activities have been developed to raise the level of preparedness: the BBK has performed risk analyses, including of CBRN threats, and “a series of Interministerial and Interstate Crisis Management Exercises (LÜKEX) has been carried out by the government and the federal states several times since 2004 and is still going on.”
Although public-private partnerships so far haven’t been utilized in Germany in the CBRN-protection and defense field, the board said, “We see some chances for optimization in the future.”
In fact, the industry can play a role as a sustainable supplier of protection and defense equipment in this field, said the DGKM Board, and also support the research and development of new products.
“Both issues may be addressed in the context of public-private partnerships,” the board said.