Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism: TICs & TIMs

Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
Training Support Package
Participant Guide
Slide 53
Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism:
TICs & TIMs
Challenges of Chemical Agent
Identification
• Symptoms similar to common disease (gastroenteritis)
• Immediate symptoms might be mild or nonexistent
• Staggered reports over long periods / different locations
• Mixed clinical presentations
• Health care providers may be less familiar with certain
chemical induced presentations
MMWR 10/3/03
Module One – Toxic Warfare: Looking Beyond Conventional Chemical Weapons
53
Given large variety of potential agents and often non-specific initial presentations, we
need to look for additional clues to suspect the use of TICs/TIMs.
Some of the clinical pearls appear on this slide. While some chemicals cause a typical
toxidrome, more often the clinical presentation may not be diagnostic of any specific
chemical agent. Often the symptoms are gastrointestinal in nature. At times the
immediate symptoms might be mild or non-existent. Given the delay in some of these
cases, we have devoted an entire lecture later in the day to these delayed syndromes.
Many health care providers may be less familiar with chemical induced presentations of
patients since these cases are relatively uncommon. Medical toxicologists strive to stay
current and maintain the most knowledge about these clinical findings because this is
truly our area of specialization. Other physicians may rarely if ever encountered some of
these problems.
December 2008 Version 2.0 Page 58