Was not quite sure where to put this topic, so choosing this section as it is not a specific question relating to the PLA.
There is of course a lot of interest in the events surrounding the Poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, England a month ago. Both victims appear now well on the way to recovery and I heard an interesting discussion about this on BBC R4 this morning in an interview with a former Commanding Officer of the UK's NBC Regiment.
During the interview, the interviewing (John Humphries) asked if the recovery of the two victims indicated that the identified nerve agent Novichok, was not as potent and effective as generally put about.
The officer disagreed and said, that recovery was down to medical team skill and care and the ability to dedicate considerable resources to the treatment, which could not be scaled up, if such a weapon was ever used in a mass attack. So that under full military strike conditions, the death rates would be very significant.
This was very interesting, but raised a question that I would like to put to the forum, int he hope that some members may have sufficient knowledge of these kinds of weapon, to be able to help answer.
The question is this:
Are nerve agents sufficiently generic as to enable an exposed patient to be stabilised for a period, while the precise strain is identified and a more specific treatment applied, or are they like other poisons, where the antidote is quite different for each poison and can only work/be applied once the poison is correctly identified?
Supplementary question:
Is the Physiology of cats sufficiently different from humans to ensure that a human lethal nerve agent may not affect them, or they just as vulnerable as us and (being very much smaller) likely to be affected by much smaller doses?
I will be very grateful for answers to both.
There is of course a lot of interest in the events surrounding the Poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, England a month ago. Both victims appear now well on the way to recovery and I heard an interesting discussion about this on BBC R4 this morning in an interview with a former Commanding Officer of the UK's NBC Regiment.
During the interview, the interviewing (John Humphries) asked if the recovery of the two victims indicated that the identified nerve agent Novichok, was not as potent and effective as generally put about.
The officer disagreed and said, that recovery was down to medical team skill and care and the ability to dedicate considerable resources to the treatment, which could not be scaled up, if such a weapon was ever used in a mass attack. So that under full military strike conditions, the death rates would be very significant.
This was very interesting, but raised a question that I would like to put to the forum, int he hope that some members may have sufficient knowledge of these kinds of weapon, to be able to help answer.
The question is this:
Are nerve agents sufficiently generic as to enable an exposed patient to be stabilised for a period, while the precise strain is identified and a more specific treatment applied, or are they like other poisons, where the antidote is quite different for each poison and can only work/be applied once the poison is correctly identified?
Supplementary question:
Is the Physiology of cats sufficiently different from humans to ensure that a human lethal nerve agent may not affect them, or they just as vulnerable as us and (being very much smaller) likely to be affected by much smaller doses?
I will be very grateful for answers to both.