Going by the book: Tackling disaster

Terrorism is the most likely man-made disaster threat facing the UAE, warned experts at a disaster-response training conference held yesterday in the capital.

And to cope with such a threat, a new UAE disaster response book – translated into Arabic from a US manual – combined with a federal push for a new national crisis centre will equip 100 medical and emergency workers with the necessary skills to respond to acts of terror on UAE soil, officials said.

Two-day session

Frontline workers are in Abu Dhabi for a two-day crisis training session by some of the best disaster experts on the planet.

"Of course, terrorism is the biggest challenge for medical providers," said Dr Thomas Gionis, a faculty member of the Boston-based International Trauma and Disaster Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"It can be widespread," Gionis added. "Terrorists do not have to kill people to achieve their goals; they just have to create a climate of fear and panic to overwhelm the healthcare system."

He told disaster response trainees from the government, hospitals and the police that any terrorist attack on the UAE could manifest itself in many ways ranging from suicide bombings and conventional explosives to military weapons.

Gionis said disaster response teams should always be prepared for a situation "that could produce large number of casualties who are not expected to survive".

Dr Susan Briggs, the Boston-based trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, literally wrote the book on disaster response and it is her crisis manual – prepared after 9/11 - that was translated into Arabic as the new official manual for the UAE’s professional responders.

Biggest challenge

Briggs told trainees yesterday that the biggest challenge while responding is learning to triage (sorting and allocating aid on the basis of need) in the field to identify and immediately treat critically wounded victims as opposed to caring for people with lesser minor injuries.

Roughly one in five victims of a man-made or natural disaster is usually critical, she said.

For example, there were a reported 5,000 victims of the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway perpetrated in March 1995 by domestic terrorists, but "less than 1,000 had effects from the gas".

If disaster victims are over-triaged, Briggs said the healthcare system can be overwhelmed, leading to a bottleneck.

"This is the real challenge in the emergency room," she said.

Most countries which are now adopting disaster response plans are developing triage units that respond "outside the hospital room", she said.

Helpful training

Dr Jawal Al Hosani, director with the new National Crisis and Emergency Management Auth-ority in Abu Dhabi, said the training will go far for frontline workers in the UAE who "have technical understanding, but we lack coordination. It’s a matter of creating an umbrella under which everyone can come together".

The crisis centre was created after a decree last year.

Al Hosani said the new national centre will be complemented by regional offices in Dubai and Fujairah and will help unify frontline government, police and health agencies if a countrywide disaster plan is needed to be put into effect.

Family planning

Linda Sperberg, Project Manager of National Training in Abu Dhabi, said families too must have home disaster strategies. She said individuals and families should:

• Assemble a disaster response kit to keep a family supplied with food, water and lighting for up to seven days
• Buy life and home insurance
• Follow advice by officials in charge during a disaster
• Help others in crisis at the time of disaster
• Learn where to seek shelter
• Practise escape routes from homes and family disaster plans