FAST FACTS: Toxic gases, Chemical attacks... Clip 2 (ENG)

Dr Frédéric Baud explains how explains how to treat patients

MSF195147

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VIDEO: Toxic gases, Chemical attacks - Frédéric Baud, May 2017

FAST FACTS: Toxic gases, Chemical attacks... Clip 2 (INT)

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FAST FACTS: Toxic gases, Chemical attacks... Clip 2 (FR)

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF195147

Date taken / Date Recorded 30/03/2017 12:00 AM

Country Syria

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Armelle Loiseau

Usage Rights (MSF) Advertising Campaign, External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m57s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 299.47 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist CLIP 02
Toxic gases, Chemical attacks? How we treat the victims…
Fast Facts… Dr Frédéric Baud, Toxicology Advisor, MSF
Whenever you suspect chemical weapons, you need to think about the protection of healthcare workers.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
CHEMICAL WEAPONS – PROTECTION OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS
If healthcare workers aren’t protected, that means one more victim and one less caregiver. And there are simple ways to protect them, with personal protection equipment for example. We’ve seen that plastic protects. So rubber boots protect, pants protect, plastic aprons protect and gloves, too.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
RUBBER BOOTS – PANTS - PLASTIC APRON – GLOVES – ESACPE HOODS – GAS MASKS
After that, you need face and airway protection, which comes in two forms: either what we call escape hoods, which are masks that are pulled over the head. These are see-through so people can recognise you, and they also allow you to talk. Gas masks, on the other hand, are more powerful and last longer than escape hoods, but are harder and more tiring to wear.
Once caregivers are protected, they can treat the victims. What they’ll do with the victims, first of all, is ask them to undress. Studies have shown that undressing the victim eliminates 80% of the contamination and the transfer of contamination. So that’s an easy thing to do. The clothes are put in a plastic bag, which is closed. Next there is dry decontamination using absorbent materials. That usually means earth. Flour is absorbent, too, and can be found anywhere. The third and last phase is wet decontamination - the shower. You can substitute for a shower by pouring a basin of water over the person, having them soap themselves up, and then pouring a second basin of water over them so they can rinse themselves off.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
UNDRESS THE PATIENT 80% of contamination
DRY DECONTAMINATION – ABSORBANT MATERIALS – EARTH - FLOUR
WET DECONTAMINATION - SOAP
Chlorine gas by itself does not require decontamination. It’s very easy to diagnose chlorine by the smell…it smells like bleach. But the other two gases are odourless and colourless, so you don’t realise you’ve been exposed. So this is why you have to, at all costs, use personal protective equipment.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
CHLORINE GAS – SARIN nerve agent – MUSTARD GAS blistering gas
DIAGNOSE – PROTECT - TREAT
So we know how to make the diagnosis and we know how to protect personnel. We also know how to treat, symptomatically, by giving oxygen – which is for choking agents and chlorine.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
TREAMENT - CHLORINE/CHOKING AGENT – O2
For sarin, there’s also the problem of suctioning the mucus and then blocking its secretion, which you can do by administering high doses of atropine, to both adults and children.
And finally, the enzyme that sarin permanently inactivates can be reactivated, early on, using an antidote called pralidoxime.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
TREAMENT – SARIN /NERVE AGENT – Atropine – ENZYME – SARIN - PRALIDOXINE
Lastly, the treatment for mustard gas is just burn treatment – especially renutrition, since recovering from burns takes a lot of calories.
ON-SCREEN TEXT:
RENUTRITION – CALORIE INTAKE IMPORTANT