Pediatric Disaster Preparedness.

ABSTRACT

Children can be victims of mass casualty or illness, but their needs, with respect to their care and recovery are substantially different from adults. Emergency or urgent care physicians must be prepared to evaluate and manage child victims presenting to their facility in numbers or acuity that could significantly overwhelm normal operations. This article presents the general approach to pediatric disaster preparation in the United States, the expectations of emergency department providers, and different methods of disaster triage, and introduces the most likely types of mass illness (some of which are bioweapons or chemical agents) and their management.