Regional Variation in Causes of Injuries among Terrorism Victims for Mass Casualty Events

James L Regens,Nick Mould,Amy Schultheiss

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2015.00198

Abstract

The efficient allocation of medical resources to prepare for and respond to mass casualty events (MCEs) attributable to intentional acts of terrorism is a major challenge confronting disaster planners and emergency personnel. This research article examines variation in regional patterns in the causes of injures associated with 77,258 successful terrorist attacks that occurred between 1970 and 2013 involving the use of explosives, firearms, and/or incendiaries. The objective of this research is to estimate regional variation in the use of different conventional weapons in successful terrorist attacks in each world region on variation in injury cause distributions. Indeed, we find that the distributions of the number of injuries attributable to specific weapons types (i.e., by cause) vary greatly among the 13 world regions identified within the Global Terrorism Database.

Highlights

Deaths due to terrorism unlike traffic accidents account for a relatively small percentage of trauma deaths annually, successful terrorist attacks have become an increasingly common phenomenon since 1970s
The patterns in the data reveal that explosives other than suicide bombings and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and firearms consistently have been the dominant weapon types employed in terrorist attacks
Blast wave injuries and ballistic injuries tied to suicide bombings or vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) are most likely to occur in cluster 1

Summary

Introduction

Deaths due to terrorism unlike traffic accidents account for a relatively small percentage of trauma deaths annually, successful terrorist attacks have become an increasingly common phenomenon since 1970s. Similar to warfare [2, 3], mass casualty events (MCEs) due to terrorist attacks are known to produce distinct injuries when compared to other major causes of injuries, such as automobile accidents or traditional criminal violence. These unique injury causes associated with terrorism pose significant challenges to existing emergency response systems [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Local response capabilities are not overwhelmed, but there are still a large number of patients requiring triage [11]

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