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.

Access NCBRT web-based training at http://www.ncbrt.lsu.edu/elearn

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify significant events throughout the history of bioterrorism.
• Differentiate between infectious and contagious.
• Identify the routes of exposure.
• Identify the advantages of using a biological agent as a weapon.
• Identify characteristics of bacterial diseases, viral diseases, and toxins.
• Identify how biological agents may be used to attack crops or animals to harm a nation’s economy.
• Identify the concepts and principles of the ICS, NIMS, and NRF.
• Identify how biological incidents may impact incident management.
• Identify the three main types of biological incidents.
• Identify the levels of personal and respiratory protection.
• Identify the isolation zones and scene setup for a biological event response.
• Differentiate between exposure and contamination.
• Differentiate between the six types of decontamination.

Target Audience/Discipline
Emergency Medical Services, Fire Service, Hazardous Materials Personnel, Health Care, Law Enforcement, Public Health

The primary audience for this course includes administrators, directors, mid-level supervisors, special operations teams, and emergency responders who are assigned to respond to biological incidents (i.e., police, fire, emergency management and emergency medical services personnel and planners and any other governmental agencies involved). In addition, the course addresses information of value to supervisory and management personnel responsible for developing policies and procedures governing emergency responder actions during natural or intentional biological incidents.

Level of training
Awareness

Hours 2.5

Format Web-Based Training

DHS Course # AWR-118-W

Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course

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