What is this about? In the case of contamination by chemical warfare agents, acidic projections or industrial chemicals, it is imperative to have a decontamination process in place to quickly remove dangerous agents from the surface on which they have been dispersed. Immediate decontamination (military concept) or emergency decontamination (medical concept) is generally carried out…
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In a mini-review published in “ADC Letters for infectious disease control”, Eto A. and Kanatani Y. explain how Japan is preparing for a possible bioterrorist attack. The strategy to make Japan “the safest country in the world” is based on a “Sakigake” pilot project to promote the development of innovative drugs and other medical devices….
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At a time when we are rightly concerned about the evolution of bacteria towards greater resistance to antibiotics, we are seeing the reappearance of a method for fighting pathogenic bacteria, invented by Félix d’Hérelle. The first tested humans were in 1919: phagotherapy is 100 years old. Félix d’Hérelle A self-taught French-Canadian microbiologist born in…
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The French Society of Disaster Medicine has just organized a session “Children and Disasters” in order to better understand the problems raised by children who are victims of a disaster. This gave us the opportunity to review the literature on pediatric decontamination that we propose to you here. Special vulnerabilities of children Smaller in…
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An excellent article entitled “Plague Masks: The Visual Emergence of Anti-Epidemic Personal Protection Equipment” written by Christos Lynteris has just been published in the journal Medical Anthropology (2018). Through the invention of masks to protect the respiratory tract against infectious agents, in this case the plague microbe, the author shows us that these devices can…
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Current images show that tear gases are massively used to maintain order during demonstrations. This leads us to ask ourselves some questions to better understand these products: what is their composition, how did they appear, what are their mode of action and toxicity, how can they be protected or even eliminated, what is the legislation…
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As already mentioned, the former acronym BCN (Bacteriological, Chemical, Nuclear) has evolved towards the acronym BCRNe (Biological, Chemical, Nuclear, explosive) to better reflect the paradigm shift, state threat vs. terrorist threat the “e” meaning explosive, considered as a vector for the diffusion of a BCRN agent. Given the evolution in the number of operational missions…
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During the Cold War the Western nations and the USSR developed weapons of mass destruction. Although many of these programs are “top secret”, some information is known about the synthesis of chemical agents by the USSR under the FOLIANT and NOVICHOK programs, both developed in response to the English and American development of agent VX….
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What is this about? Poisoning in children is usually characterized by delirium, convulsion or decreased consciousness. In children under 5 years of age, poison ingestion is unintentional, while in adolescence, self-harm or accidents due to alcohol or drug use appear. The diagnosis must be made quickly in order to treat effectively. We will therefore see…
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We have had the opportunity on several occasions in this blog to talk about biological warfare. An interesting review has just been published on this subject and it is an opportunity for us to review our current knowledge of this BCRNE threat. Historical background The first to use biological weapons was undoubtedly the Carthaginian general…
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