Herman Van de Voorde

Fatality management in mass casualty incidents

Medical involvement in mass casualty incidents requires proper planning and preparedness. In disaster situations, legal aspects concerning the dead add to the general problem of a lack of time, place and resources to maintain routine working conditions, and demand authority and competence. The aspects of planning the recovery of the dead, transportation and morgue facilities, establishment of cause of death, identification, and the final disposition of the dead are discussed. The implementation of forensic mass fatality teams is felt to be the right answer for a better planning and coordination.

Self‐purification of sea‐water from bacteriological contamination

The survival time of different pathogenic bacteria has been determined in sea‐water under stationary conditions. Some pathogens are relatively stable and may develop in the aquatic medium. Only E. coli disappears more quickly in sea‐water than in physiological saline. The survival time of the other micro‐organisms differs little for both waters. The data show that the test for water quality evaluation must be extended to other genera than E. coli.