Academese
It pays to be prepared. That's the mantra of Hopkins'
Office of Critical
Event Preparedness and Response -- the command center
for university enterprise-wide planning and reaction to
catastrophes, particularly those involving bioterrorism or
nuclear or chemical attack. At CEPAR, acronyms abound...
PPE: Personal Protective Equipment; includes
everything from rubber hoods and gas masks to chemical
impervious suits and aprons.
WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction-formerly known as
NBC, or Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical weapons. The
designation changed post 9/11 because NBC didn't include
incendiary (or potentially incendiary) devices ... like
airplanes.
BW: Biological Weapons. Includes the six agents
considered most likely to be used in a bioterrorist attack:
smallpox, plague, botulism, tularemia, viral hemorrhagic
fevers, and anthrax.
MCE: Mass Casualty Event. Can be used almost
interchangeably with "large scale event" (below), although
there is a difference in magnitude: "If a building
collapses, it's a large scale event," says Christina
Catlett, deputy director of CEPAR. "If there are a lot of
people in the building, it's an MCE."
LSE: Large Scale Events that "really tax the
emergency or healthcare systems." These used to be plane
crashes, train accidents, and building fires. "In the new
era," says Catlett, "we worry about WMD causing MCE. WMDs
can have hundreds or thousands of victims."
Surge Capacity: Amount of additional in- and/or
outpatient care a hospital can provide when pressed into an
MCE.
The Worried Well: Those who "freak out" after an
LSE, rushing to emergency rooms with psychosomatic or
stress symptoms even though "there isn't anything wrong
with them."
--SM