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Abstract
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The threat posed by both armed conflicts and targeted terrorist attacks unfortunately continues. The year 2022, with the onset of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine, has sadly made this more than clear to us.
In our Focus-On Issue 08-2020 of the European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery on this complex of topics, we were able to shed light on the management of mass casualties from the perspective of intra-hospital decision makers. However, the topic of terror preparedness goes further and encompasses many other areas, which will be examined in an excerpt in this second Focus-On-issue. The developments in Ukraine in particular show us that the threat in Europe has also changed considerably and has moved much closer and more intense towards us. We perceive this in our everyday life, but as well also in our clinical work and the inherent daily business. It is therefore our duty to address the issue of preparedness actively.
In their article, Tin et al. provide a very valuable illustration of the connection and the fluid transition between armed conflicts and targeted terrorist-motivated attacks, e.g., on the civilian population, and emphasize that here, too, even transnational agreements such as the Geneva Convention or other regulations or codes of conduct and legal requirements are no longer respected [1]. They highlight in detail the term counter-terrorism medicine (CTM) to examine the consequences and effects not so much on the individual injured person, but on the health system in total. In their conclusion, the authors clearly recommend that the preparation of our health systems must continue with high priority...
Language: en |