Initial clinical management of patients exposed to chemical weapons: interim guidance document
Publication date: 2014
This interim guidance is aimed at healthcare workers who may receive patients exposed to chemical weapons at their healthcare facilities. The guidance provides questions to guide the identification of contaminated patients, recommendations on personal protection, procedures for decontamination, guidance for triage and identification of categories of exposure, and treatment regimens for individual chemicals. Users should study the contents of this document carefully and apply the principles and framework to their own situation and health care facilities.
Public health response to biological and chemical weapons : WHO guidance
Publication date: 2004
The message contained in this publication is clear: countries need a public health system that can respond to the deliberate release of chemical and biological agents. Recognizing this need, the Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly in May 2002 adopted resolution WHA55.16 calling on Member States to “treat any deliberate use, including local, of biological and chemical agents and radionuclear attack to cause harm also as a global public health threat, and to respond to such a threat in other countries by sharing expertise, supplies and resources in order rapidly to contain the event and mitigate its effects.” What is now required are national and international procedures to meet it, suitably resourced.