Disaster response under One Health in the aftermath of Nepal earthquake, 2015

Abstract

Until now, an estimate quotes that 1100 healthcare facilities were damaged and over 100,000 livestock lost in the two earthquakes that occurred in April and May of 2015 in Nepal. Threats of infectious diseases, mostly zoonoses, could affect Nepal's economy, trade, and tourism, and reaching the targets of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Historically, outbreaks of infectious diseases, including zoonoses, were largely associated with the aftereffects of the earthquakes. It has been documented that zoonoses constitute 61% of all known infectious diseases. Therefore, the purpose of this communication was to examine the infectious disease outbreaks after earthquakes around the world and explore the risk assessment of the zoonoses threats reported in Nepal and highlight adopting One Health. Our summaries on reported zoonoses in Nepal have shown that parasitic zoonoses were predominant, but other infectious disease outbreaks can occur. The fragile public health infrastructure and inadequately trained public health personnel can accelerate the transmission of infections, mostly zoonoses, in the post impact phase of the earthquake in Nepal. Therefore, we believe that with the support of aid agencies, veterinarians and health professionals can team up to resolve the crisis under One Health.

Rethinking One Health approach in the challenging era of COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters

“…eating). The 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and the 2015 Nepal earthquake affected the agriculture sector and animal welfare, and zoonoses occurred [9,10], necessitating a cooperative approach between human Table 1. Health approach of shared environment, safe food systems, and shared medicines/interventions in the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Subacute Phase After an Earthquake: An Even More Important Period

“…In order to achieve the goal of not having a major epidemic after a major disaster, we must have a profound study and learn from other countries at the same time. 45,46 Psychological Assistance Psychological problems, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety gradually became apparent in the subacute phase after the earthquake. 47,48 The results of this paper showed that the percentage of mental and behavioral disease increased significantly in the subacute phase (1.18%) compared with the acute phase (0.02%).…”

Nepal Government’s Emergency Response to the 2015 Earthquake: A Case Study

“…During the rescue and relief stage, the immediate focus is to save the lives of people, which can be done through the deployment of search-and-rescue teams (Kates and Pijawka 1977;Alexander 2007 as cited by Contreras 2016). Asokan and Vanitha (2017) emphasized the importance of a combined effort by aid agencies and health professionals in an emergency response. Further, needs assessments are vital for estimating the number of affected people from an earthquake, the number of temporary shelters required, and finally, the type of humanitarian aid required (Brown et al 2010 as cited by Contreras 2016).…”