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The National Center for Biomedical Research and Training at Louisiana State University offers DHS-certified courses covered under the NCBRT’s Homeland Security National Training Program Cooperative Agreement. As a DHS primary training provider, the NCBRT can offer this vital training at no direct cost to your agency. Please contact us at info@ncbrt.lsu.edu or 1-877-829-8550 to schedule a course through your state administrative agency, or visit www.ncbrt.lsu.edu to learn more about the NCBRT’s training opportunities. Remember, the time to prepare is now!

Awareness and Response to Biological Events

prepared jurisdiction

This is an awareness-level course designed to address fundamentals associated with emergency response to biological incidents. The course provides a brief overview of the biological threat that now faces the United States; biological agents that are naturally occurring or could be used deliberately; and methods of protection from biological agents (with an emphasis on protection using methods and equipment readily available to emergency responders). Tactics for identifying the presence of a potential biological threat, responding to an incident, and supporting operations at the incident scene are also addressed.

The course also supports the necessity for teamwork (through a review of the Incident Command System, the National Incident Management System, and the National Response Framework) among all responding agencies and actions that all personnel can take to support and facilitate the operations of other responding agencies. In summary, the course will prepare representatives of federal, state, local, and tribal emergency response agencies to perform safely and effectively during an
incident involving biological agents.

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:
• Describe how performance is evaluated
• Summarize the course and its agenda
• List the three main types of biological incidents
• Outline the history of bioweapons
• Contrast the common misconceptions about bioterrorism with the realities
• Identify reasons why a terrorist might use a biological agent as a weapon
• List the routes of exposure
• Discuss the difference between infectious and contagious
• Describe the characteristics of bacterial diseases, viral diseases, and toxins
• Explain how biological agents may be used to attack crops or animals to harm a nation’s economy (agroterrorism)
• Use the Biological Agents Matrix in the NCBRT WMD Response Guidebook to determine a biological agent from signs and symptoms given by the instructor in a practical exercise
• Review the concepts and principles of the ICS, NIMS, and the NRF

• Describe how biological incidents may impact incident management
• Describe levels of personal and respiratory protection
• Describe isolation zones and scene setup for a biological event response
• Explain the importance of decontamination
• Distinguish between exposure and contamination
• Differentiate the six types of decontamination
• Identify the lessons learned from each case study
• Identify the resources required for response in each case study
• Determine the correct responses by local jurisdictions based upon information provided in each study
• Successfully complete a comprehensive post-test
• Provide feedback by completing a course evaluation form

Target Audience/Discipline
EMS, FS, HZ, HC, LE, PH

Scheduling
Contact a NCBRT training coordinator today to schedule this course.

Min/Max Enrollment Min 30; Max 50+

Hours 6.5 (Direct/Indirect Delivery); 7.5 (Train-the-Trainer)

Format Instructor-Led Training (Direct Delivery; Train-the-Trainer; Indirect Delivery)

DHS Course # AWR-118, AWR-118-1, AWR-118-2

Prerequisites
Successful completion of a WMD awareness-level training course