Emergency and disaster preparedness for chronically ill patients: a review of recommendations

Abstract

Recent disasters, especially those in developed countries, have highlighted the importance of disaster preparedness measures for chronic diseases. A number of surviving patients experienced the exacerbation of a chronic illness, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases, due to disaster-related stress, interruption of care, or both; for some patients, these exacerbations resulted in death. Here, we review reports from recent disasters in developed countries and summarize the recommendations for disaster preparedness of chronically ill patients. A considerable number of recommendations based on the lessons learned from recent disasters have been developed, and they provide practical and essential steps to prevent treatment interruption during and after a disaster. To improve preparedness efforts, we suggest that health care providers should be aware of the following three suggestions: 1) recommendations should be evidence-based; 2) recommendations should contain consistent messages; and 3) recommendations should be feasible.

Prevalence Rate of Diabetes and Hypertension in Disaster-Exposed Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…During the occurrence of disasters, due to various factors such as unavailability of medicines, loss of medical records, disruption of mobility due to destruction of major paths to access treatment centers the controlled cases of HTN and DM may recur, and/or individuals who are in pre-hypertension and prediabetic stages may develop more advanced stages of these diseases, which can also contribute to an increase in these diseases prevalence in surviving population from disasters. In a study conducted by Murakami et al, similar results like ours were noted ( 37 , 54 ), suggesting that HTN and DM prevalence was higher in survivors of the natural disaster compared to the general population. Also, in a study by Fonesca et al It has been shown that after Hurricane Katrina, mean systolic blood pressure, hemoglobin A1c and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels of diabetic patients have been significantly increased ( 55 ).…”

Emergency Department and Inpatient Health Care Services Utilization by the Elderly Population: Hurricane Sandy in The State of New Jersey

“…In addition, most of these recommendations had not been scientifically studied and validated. 20 Findings of this study provided a quantitative effort to understand the immediate surge workload as ED and hospital staffs responded to injured and medically ill adults aged 65 and older during and after Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. We hope these findings contribute to literature that offers evidence-based results and insights for the elder medical care services and disaster preparedness.…”

Short term home oxygen therapy COVID-19 patients: The COVID-HOT algorithm

“…This, in turn, involves appropriate expertise and understanding of supply chains, pertinent safety measures and system dynamics (beyond the scope of this article). [ 43 44 45 46 47 ]…”