A nuclear war would result in human death, injury and disease on a scale that has no precedent in history, dwarfing all previous plagues and wars. There is no possible effective medical response after a nuclear attack - in one major city alone, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of sudden deaths, there would be hundreds of thousands of people with severe burns, trauma, and radiation sickness - all demanding intensive care. Even if all medical resources were intact, the care of these immediate survivors would be next to impossible. In fact, most hospitals would be destroyed, medical personnel among the dead and injured, most transportation, communication and energy systems inoperable, and most medical supplies unavailable.