Terror Medicine Course Being Taught at Rutgers

The war on terrorism continues right here in New Jersey. 

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School is offering a two-week elective course called Terror Medicine.  The course is designed to prepare future physicians to the issues they would face should a terrorist attack ever result in mass casualties.

"This is unfortunately an era where terrorism is going to happen, and anyone who doesn't think that we'll be having other events in this country - I think is probably naive," said Leonard Cole, director of the program on terror medicine and security at NJMS.

Students learn how to deal with poison gas, when or when not to respond to an incident and how to effectively manage large numbers of casualties.

The course draws heavily on knowledge and experience gleaned from responding to past terror attacks, both in the U.S. and overseas.  Cole said the course taps into the wealth of knowledge and experience countries like Israel have in dealing with terror attacks.

Cole said the course is useful training for any sort of catastrophe. "Whatever training we can offer in this area really does have multiple uses, apart from just a terrorism event."

The course could also be useful for police officers, firefighters and even ordinary citizens that find themselves at the center of a terrorism event, according to Cole.