KOTA KINABALU: Some 250 personnel from government institutions and agencies took part in a workshop on how to deal with the threat of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) incidents recently.
The inaugural workshop was organised by Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s (UMS) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences through its Emergency Medicine Department at the UMS campus here.
Entitled “CBRNE Terrorism Awareness and Medical Emergency Consequence Management Workshop 2024”, the programme was aimed at providing basic introduction to the participants on the dangers of CBRNE which is gaining worldwide attention.
The workshop was also intended to kickstart initiatives by the state government to identify risks and threats on CBRNE that could take place in Sabah.
Subsequently, the government could then come up with a sustainable disaster plan to address the threats with the involvement of all the agencies that attended the programme.
State trauma and emergency medicine department head Dr Abd Adzim E Arim Sasi, who launched the programme, said the workshop was one of the main platforms that could teach and provide exposure as well as basic skills to healthcare workers on responding to CBRNE disasters.
The Sabah Health Department, as part of its preparedness, he said, has established a plan in the event of CBRNE threats or events occurring, particularly in the state.
Medical officers in protective suits training how to administer emergency treatment in a field hospital erected using a disaster tent.
“Besides that, trained staff could become pioneers in CBRNE training centres in the region,” he said, in a statement on Monday (July 22).
According to Dr Abd Adzim, there were six CBRNE cases last year in Sabah alone.
The last case was last November in the Tawau district involving a chlorine gas leak at the Pegagau Agriculture shrimp pond at Kampung Wakuba.
One of the six victims had died in the incident, he added.
“As such, hospitals and public health facilities in Sabah must deepen their knowledge on CBRNE events in order to allow their staff to be ready to face this new-age threat,” he said.
The workshop was held in collaboration with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s emergency department, the Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism (SEARCCT) and the Sabah Fire and Rescue Department.
Personnel from multiple agencies statewide took part in the training.
The programme was also supported by the Sabah Chemistry Department, the military, the police’s bomb disposal unit and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).
