To perform a scoping review identifying the criteria for the deployment of the United States National Guard (USNG) to domestic sudden-onset natural disasters to identify the body of literature on which further research and policy decisions may be based.

On January 23, 2023 authors performed a search to identify texts relevant to the involvement of the USNG response to sudden-onset domestic natural disasters. English language texts from any year were considered. Independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts, then full-texts, then extracted data from included texts.

From 886 search results, 34 texts were included. Fifteen criteria for USNG deployment were identified. Lack of security, power failure, and logistical coordination were the most common criteria. Hurricanes were the most common disaster type in the included results.

Disaster response coordinators may use these results to develop policies optimizing the use of the USNG in disaster response.

To analyze terror events in Latin America from 1970 through 2020 utilizing the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).

A retrospective descriptive analysis of data from 17 Latin America Countries from 1970 through 2020 was performed to include number of attacks, deaths, injuries, primary weapon types, location, and primary target types.

A total 30,224 attacks were recorded, resulting in 60,163 deaths and 26,576 injuries. Firearms were the most frequent weapons used (12,651), followed by explosives (12,518), unspecified weapons (3,198), and incendiary devices (1,584). Military-related targets (4,929) were the most frequently targeted entities, followed by private citizens and property (4,906), businesses (4,810), general government facilities (3,994), police (2,955), diplomatic government facilities (604), and religious figures/institutions (464).

The health implications of terrorist attacks are often compounded by violence that pose unique challenges to populations, governments, and aid organizations. Through an understanding of the impact and scope of terrorist activity, Counter-Terrorism Medicine strategies can improve outcomes through all stages of the disaster cycle.

The threat of chemical, biological, radiologic, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNe) terrorist attacks has increased over time. The need for rapid and effective responses to such attacks is paramount. Effective medical counter-measures to CBRNe events are critical and training for such may effectively occur early in physician training. While some medical specialties are more involved than others, counter-terrorism medicine (CTM) spans all medical specialties.

All United States allopathic medical schools were examined via online curriculums and queries for academic content related to CBRNe and terrorist medical counter-measures.

Analysis of 153 United States allopathic medical schools demonstrated that 15 (9.8%) medical schools offered educational content related to CBRNe and terrorist counter-measures. This is in contrast to legislation following the September 11, 2001 attacks that called for high priority for such education.

Effective CBRNe medical counter-measures are currently in place; however, there is room for improvement in education that may begin during medical school. While certain medical specialties such as emergency medicine, primary care, and dermatology may have specific niches in such events, physicians of all medical specialties have something to offer, and even a basic education in medical school can help best prepare the nation for future attacks.

Escalating global challenges (such as disasters, conflict, and climate change) underline the importance of addressing Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) terrorism for sustainable public health strategies. This study aims to provide a comprehensive epidemiological analysis of CBRN incidents in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, emphasizing the necessity of sustainable responses to safeguard healthcare infrastructures.

Utilizing a retrospective approach, this research analyzes data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) covering the period from 2003 to 2020. The study focuses on examining the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of CBRN incidents in the MENA region to identify patterns and trends that pose significant challenges to public health systems.

The analysis revealed a significant clustering of CBRN incidents in Iraq and Syria, with a predominant involvement of chemical agents. These findings indicate the extensive impact of CBRN terrorism on healthcare infrastructures, highlighting the challenges in providing immediate health responses and the necessity for long-term recovery strategies.

The study underscores the need for improved healthcare preparedness, robust emergency response systems, and the development of sustainable public health policies. Advocating for international collaboration, the research contributes to the strategic adaptation of healthcare systems to mitigate the impacts of CBRN terrorism, ensuring preparedness for future incidents in the MENA region and beyond.

Health care provision depends on reliable critical infrastructure (CI) to power equipment and to provide water for medication and sanitation. Attacks on CI limiting such functions can have a profound and prolonged influence on delivery of care.

A retrospective analysis of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) was performed of all attacks occurring from 1970-2020. Data were filtered using the internal database search function for all events where the primary target was “Utilities,” “Food or Water Supply,” and “Telecommunications.” For the purposes of this study, the subtype “Food Supply” was excluded. Events were collated based on year, country, region, and numbers killed and wounded.

The GTD listed 7,813 attacks on CI, with 6,280 of those attacks targeting utilities, leading to 1,917 persons directly killed and 1,377 persons wounded. In total, there were 1,265 attacks targeting telecommunications causing 205 direct deaths and 510 wounded. Lastly, 268 attacks targeted the water supply with 318 directly killed and 261 wounded. Regionally, South America had the most attacks with 2,236, followed by Central America and the Caribbean with 1,390. Based on infrastructure type, the most attacks on utilities occurred in El Salvador (1,061), and the most attacks on telecommunications were in India (140). Peru (46) had the most attacks on its water supply.

The regions with the highest number of total attacks targeting CI have historically been in South America, with more attacks against power and utilities than other infrastructure. Although the numbers of persons directly killed and wounded in these attacks were lower than with other target types, the true impacts on lack of health care delivery are not accounted for in these numbers. By understanding the pattern and scope of these attacks, Counter-Terrorism Medicine (CTM) initiatives can be created to target-harden health care-related infrastructure.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the recent Russo-Ukrainian war that started in 2022, were triggers that radically changed the perception of security in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The on-going Russian hybrid war has resulted in a renewed global interest in the safety and security of many countries (eg, the Nordic-Baltic Eight). The prospective North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership of Finland and Sweden may drastically change the regional military and political landscape.

The objective of this study was to identify and characterize all documented terrorist attacks in this region as reported to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) from 1970 through 2020.

The GTD was searched using the internal database functions for all terrorism incidents in the Nordic-Baltic states: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden.

Temporal factors, location, target type, attack and weapon type, perpetrator type, number of casualties, and property value loss were collated. Results were exported into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis.

There were 298 terrorism-related incidents from 1970 through 2020. Most attacks occurred in Sweden, followed by Norway and Finland. No entries were recorded for the Baltic states prior to their independency in 1991. The 298 incidents resulted in a total of 113 fatalities and 277 injuries.

Facility/infrastructure attacks were the most frequently identified attack type (35.0%), followed by bombings and explosions (30.9%). Armed assaults were responsible for 80 fatalities and 105 injuries, followed by bombings/explosions with 15 fatalities and 72 injuries. The predominant target types were immigrants and refugee shelters (64/298 incidents). In only 33.6% of the incidents, perpetrators were known. Right-wing assailants represented the largest group, accounting for 27 incidents.

From 1970 through 2020, there were 298 terrorist attacks in the Nordic-Baltic Eight. Sweden accounted for 50% of incidents.

The profile of terrorist attacks was very diverse, as were the perpetrators and targets. Every country had its own incident characteristics. The surge of right-wing extremism must be closely monitored.

Industrial disasters can have a myriad of repercussions ranging from deaths, injuries, and long-term adverse health impacts on nearby populations, to political fallout and environmental damage. This is a descriptive epidemiological analysis of industrial disasters occurring between 1995 and 2021 which may provide useful insight for health-care systems and disaster medicine specialists to better prevent and mitigate the effects of future industrial disasters.

Data were collected using a retrospective database search of the Emergency Events Database (EM-DATS) for all industrial disasters occurring between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2021.

A total of 1054 industrial disasters were recorded from 1995 to 2021. Most of these disasters occurred in Asia (720; 68.3%), with 131 (12.4%) in Africa, 107 (10.2%) in Europe, 94 (8.9%) in the Americas, and 2 (0.2%) in Oceania. Half of these disasters were explosions (533; 50.6%), 147 (13.9%) were collapses, 143 (13.6%) were fires, 46 (4.4%) were chemical spills, 41 (3.9%) were gas leaks, and 34 (3.2%) were poisonings. There were 6 (0.6%) oil spills and 3 (0.3%) radiation events.

A total of 29,708 deaths and 57,605 injuries were recorded as a result of industrial disasters, and they remain a significant contributor to the health-care risks of both workers and regional communities. The need for specialized emergency response training, the potential devastation of an industrial accident, and the vulnerability of critical infrastructure as terror targets highlight the need to better understand the potential immediate and long-term consequences of such events and to improve health-care responses in the future.

Compared to trauma-based injuries, chemical injuries can inflict widespread and persistent injuries to exposed victims. Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are vulnerable to chemical injuries. Specialized training is required, including zone setup, personal protective equipment (PPE), decontamination, and antidote use, beyond simple advanced trauma life support. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the educational effectiveness of the online chemical-mass casualty incident response education module (C-MCIREM) for EMS personnel.

This study is a retrospective pre-and post-test comparison. Subjects were EMS personnel who enrolled in the C-MCIREM program at the EMS Korea online conference between August 27, 2021 and September 5, 2021. Subjects provided demographic data and completed pre-course and post-course knowledge tests and self-assessments of readiness, as well as a satisfaction survey after the course. For readiness and satisfaction surveys, an 11-point Likert scale was used. The Wilcoxon Rank Sum test was used to compare the two samples.

A total of 322 respondents were enrolled. Two-hundred (62.1%) responded that they were most motivated to take the course because of curiosity about the subject. The median pre-course knowledge score was 57/100 (47, 66) and the post-knowledge score was 80/100 (66, 91) (p<0.001). Participants stated they felt their readiness to provide triage, treatment, transport, decontamination, to select correct antidotes, and to use correct PPE (all p<0.001) increased. 90.4% stated they were satisfied with the course. Participants were overall satisfied with the use of the online format (7.71/10 SD 2.05), and were willing to recommend the training to other EMS providers (7.63/10 SD 2.1).

The online C-MCIREM program showed high satisfaction with a significant increase in knowledge and self-assessed readiness to respond to a chemical mass casualty incident.

The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there were over 100 million displaced people as of May, 2022, which has left many people without adequate healthcare and strained local healthcare systems. While there is concern about violence that may be brought as a result of these large influxes of people, few are focused on attacks that are perpetrated on these displaced peoples. This study is a semi-quantitative analysis of terrorist attacks on refugees, refugee camps, internally-displaced peoples, and asylum seekers.

A retrospective search of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) was performed for all terrorist-related events from 1970 to 2020 that targeted refugees, refugee camps, internally displaced peoples (IDPs), and asylum seekers. The number of attacks, country of attacks, weapon types, numbers wounded, and numbers killed were collated into a Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet (Microsoft, Redmond Washington, USA) and analyzed.

There were a total of 683 attacks which resulted in a total of 3148 deaths and 4374 injuries from 1970-2020. These occurred in 56 countries, with Sudan having the largest number of attacks at 113, followed by Germany (71), Iraq (61), Nigeria (51), and Sweden (43). The most frequent weapons used were explosives (213), followed by firearms (210), incendiary (140), unknown (74), melee (45), and chemical (1).

Terrorist attacks against refugees/IDPs/asylum seekers resulted in 3148 deaths and 4374 injuries in 683 attacks. Sudan had the highest number of terrorist attacks, and the most frequent weapon used was explosives. Attacks against refugees pose unique challenges to government, NGO’s, and other stakeholders due to the lack of healthcare access and transient nature of this population. By understanding the scope and impact of terrorist-related attacks against this vulnerable population counter-terrorism medicine initiatives can be employed to improve healthcare access and outcomes.

Stadiums are an important part of the entertainment and sporting cultures of communities around the world, but the combination of outdated infrastructure with poor safety planning, large numbers of people gathering within a confined space, and the high frequency of such events have led to a number of significant disasters in the past.

This is a descriptive analysis of stadium disasters occurring between 1901-2021 which may provide useful insight for event safety personnel and disaster medicine specialists to better prevent and mitigate the effects of potential future stadium disasters.

Data was collected using a retrospective database search of the Emergency Events Database (EM-DATS) for all stadium-related accidental disasters occurring between January 1, 1901-July 30, 2022. A disaster is defined by CRED in its glossary as “technological accidents of an industrial nature, or involving industrial buildings”. All categories and definitions are predetermined by the EM-DATS as per their glossary.

The May 24, 1964 Estadio Nacional disaster in Lima, Peru was the worst (in terms of deaths) to date with 350 deaths. This is followed by the 1982 Luzhniki Stadium disaster in Moscow, Russia (340 deaths), the 2001 Accra Sport Stadium disaster in Ghana (123 deaths), and the 1985 Hillsborough Stadium disaster in Sheffield, England (96 deaths) as well as 14 of the 40 stadium disasters occurred in Africa, 11 in Europe, 10 in the Americas, and five in Asia.

A total of 40 stadium disasters were included, leading to 2,025 deaths and 6,640 injuries. This equated to an average of 50.6 deaths and 166.0 injuries per disaster. Given the potential risk of mass casualty events, stadiums should incorporate disaster medicine education, training, and expertise in their emergency medical plans.

Industrial disasters can have a myriad of repercussions ranging from acute deaths, injuries, and long-term adverse health impacts on nearby populations to political fallout and environmental damage. This is a descriptive epidemiological analysis of industrial disasters occurring between 1995 and 2021 which may provide useful insight for health care systems and disaster medicine specialists to better prevent and mitigate the effects of future industrial disasters.

Data was collected using a retrospective database search of the Emergency Events Database (EM-DATS) for all industrial disasters occurring between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2021.

1,054 industrial disasters were recorded from 1995 to 2021. The majority of these disasters occurred in Asia (720, 68.3%), with 131 (12.4%) in Africa, 107 (10.2%) in Europe, 94 (8.9%) in the Americas, and 2 (0.2%) in Oceania. Half of these disasters were explosions (533, 50.6%), 147 (13.9%) were collapses, 143 (13.6%) were fires, 46 (4.4%) were chemical spills, 41 (3.9%) were gas leaks, and 34 (3.2%) were poisonings. There were 6 (0.6%) oil spills and 3 (0.3%) radiation events.

A total of 29,708 deaths and 57,605 injuries were recorded as a result of industrial disasters and they remain a significant contributor to the healthcare risks of both workers and regional communities. The need for specialized emergency response training, the potential devastation of an industrial accident, and the vulnerability of critical infrastructure as terror targets highlight the need to better understand the potential immediate and long-term consequences of such events and to improve healthcare responses in the future.

This study aims to analyze and describe terrorism-related attacks in East Asia from 1970 to 2020. This descriptive analysis of terrorist attacks in East Asia will help first responders, emergency medical services (EMS), hospital-based medical providers, and policymakers establish a more refined hazard vulnerability assessment framework and develop a counter-terrorism medicine (CTM) mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery plan.

This descriptive observational study draws data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) from January 1, 1970, to December 31, 2020. Epidemiology outcomes included primary weapon type, primary target type, the country where the incident occurred, and the number of total deaths and injuries collected. Data from 2021 was not yet available at the time of this study. Results were exported into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Corp.; Redmond, Washington USA) for analysis.

There were 779 terrorism-related events in East Asia from 1970 to 2020. In total, the attacks resulted in 1,123 deaths and 9,061 persons injured. The greatest number of attacks (371; 47.63%) occurred in Japan and the second most occurred in China (268; 34.4%). Explosives were the most used primary weapon type (308; 39.54%) in the region, followed by incendiary devices (260; 33.38%). Terrorist attacks drastically diminished from their peak of 92 in 1990, but there were additional peaks of 88 in 1996, 18 in 2000, 20 in 2008, and 36 attacks in 2014.

A total of 779 terrorist attacks occurred from 1970 to 2020 in East Asia, resulting in 1,123 deaths and 9,061 injuries. Of those, 82.03% of attacks occurred in Japan and China. Terrorist attacks drastically diminished since their peak in 1996, but there is an overall uptrend in attacks since 1999.

Healthcare provision depends on reliable infrastructure to power equipment, and provide water for medication and sanitation. Attacks on infrastructure limiting such functions can have a profound and prolonged influence on the delivery of care.

A retrospective analysis of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) was performed of all attacks occurring between 1970-2020. Data was filtered using the internal database search function for all events where the primary target was “Utilities”, “Food or Water Supply” and “Telecommunications.” For the purposes of this study the subtype “Food Supply” was excluded. Events were collated based on year, country, region, numbers killed and wounded.

The GTD listed 7,813 attacks on infrastructure with 6,280 attacks targeting utilities leading to 1,917 persons directly killed and 1,377 wounded. In total there were 1,265 attacks targeting telecommunications causing 205 direct deaths and 510 wounded. Lastly, 268 attacks targeted the water supply with 318 directly killed and 261 wounded. Regionally, South America had the most attacks with 2,236, followed by Central America and the Caribbean with 1,390. Based on infrastructure type, the most attacks on utilities occurred in El Salvador (1,061), the most attacks on telecommunications were in India (140) and Peru (46) had the most attacks on its water supply.

The regions with the highest number of total attacks targeting infrastructure have historically been in South America, with more attacks against power and utilities than other infrastructure. The numbers of persons directly killed and wounded in these attacks were lower than those with other target types. However, the true impacts these attacks have on lack of health care delivery are not accounted for in these numbers. By understanding the pattern and scope of these attacks, Counter-Terrorism Medicine initiatives can be created to target harden healthcare-related infrastructure.

The current war in Ukraine and the subsequent deployment of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from around the world has highlighted the many potential dangers faced by humanitarian aid workers operating in conflict zones. Humanitarian aid workers may face both direct and indirect threats and aggression whilst on deployment, and given the rising number of global conflicts, the authors postulate a need to incorporate threat awareness training as part of pre-deployment training.

A list of the top 22 rated NGOs providing international aid was obtained from CharityWatch. All 22 were contacted via their public email addresses or website contact pages to find out if they provide any form of security, tactical, or threat awareness training.

Seven of the 13 NGOs that responded did not deploy staff into recent conflict zones or surroundings. All six NGOs who deployed staff into Ukraine or surrounding border countries, provided either security, tactical, or threat awareness training to their staff.

With the rising number of conflicts and disasters around the world, humanitarian aid workers are increasingly exposed to hostile environments and there is a compelling need for NGOs to ensure staff are adequately trained and prepared to handle any dangers and threats they may face.

Terrorism remains a major threat and concern in many countries around the world. Children represent approximately 30% of the world population and in the event of a terrorist attack can either be primary targets, to include the possibility of abduction, or unintended victims. Children are unique in their vulnerabilities and therefore, require special consideration.

This study is a semi-quantitative epidemiological analysis of all terrorism-related pediatric fatalities and injuries sustained between 1970-2019. Data collection was performed using a retrospective database search through the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). Summaries of events including search terms associated with children were individually reviewed and those describing the deaths, injuries, or abduction of children were tallied.

Of the over 200,000 terror events, 2,302 events met inclusion criteria. This represented 1.14% of total events which involved death, injury, or abduction of children. Of 2,032 events a total of 2,275 pediatric fatal injuries (FI) were recorded, as well as 2,280 pediatric non-fatal injuries (NFI). The most common weapons used in all attacks involving the pediatric population were explosives (1539[66.8%]), firearms (543 [23.5%]), other (169 [7.3%]) and melee (83 [3.6%]). 275 of the 2,032 were related to abductions, with 71 cases involving the abduction of ten children or more.

Pediatric casualties in terrorist events represent a small proportion of overall victims, however, they have unique vulnerabilities, and when directly impacted by terrorism, can have long term physical and psychosocial sequelae, as well as a devastating emotional impact on the community.

Cyberattacks against healthcare have been growing at an alarming rate globally targeting the theft of clinical research intellectual property, personally identifiable information, and personal health information. Recent studies have also shown a concerning correlation between cyberattacks and patient morbidity and mortality rates. Many top security experts consider cyberattacks a top national security concern.This paper is a descriptive analysis of healthcare-related breaches in the United States in the past decade and an analysis of cybersecurity threats that are currently facing the industry.

Breach reports of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals in the US are publicly accessible through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights portal. The database was downloaded and searched for all reported breaches occurring between January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2021. Breaches were subdivided by states, dates, location, entity type, and individuals affected.

Of the 3,822 PHI breaches recorded, 1,593 (41.7%) were hacking/IT related, 1,055 (27.6%) were listed as unknown, 819 (21.4%) were theft related, 194 (5.1%) were loss related, 97 (2.5%) were related to improper disposal and 64 (1.7%) were listed as “others.”

Breaches occurred within the main categories as follows: network server (957 [25%]), email (877 [23%]), paper/films (665 [17%]), other (454 [12%]), laptop (341 [9%]), desktop (309 [8%]), and electronic medical records (220 [6%]).

A total of 3,822 breaches affecting 283,335,803 people in the United States were recorded from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2021.

The most reported breaches were from healthcare providers with 2,827 (75.1%) events, followed by health plans (500 [13.1%]), business associates (480 [12.6%]) and healthcare clearinghouses (10 [0.3%]). 4 (0.1%) breaches were from unknown sources.

This report may help healthcare providers understand the extent of the issue and mitigate some of the associated risks.