Health Issues in Humanitarian Emergencies

Fisher, Mary Lou; Brahmbhatt, Daksha; Powers, Robert; Daily, Elaine K.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511841415.028

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…19 28 33 A high sexually transmitted infection prevalence can be linked to an increased risk of contracting HIV. 15 Lack of healthcare access and lack of antiretroviral therapy increase the likelihood of vertical transmission, 30 and mass population displacement can lead to increased contact (sexual and otherwise) with populations with a higher prevalence. 10 28 33 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 41–43 Additionally, disease prevention programmes are likely to be disrupted and infrastructure to be destroyed. 15 17 20 36 With regard to humanitarian response, which can under certain circumstance step into the place of previously government-provided services, insecurity makes an adequate humanitarian response difficult. 10 34 Not only will access to affected populations be difficult, especially in situations when insecurity and active fighting lead to entrapment or even to siege situation, as recently seen in Syria and Iraq, but insecurity also poses risks to aid workers’ security both for domestic/national and international/expatriate staff.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk factors and risk factor cascades for communicable disease outbreaks in complex humanitarian emergencies: a qualitative systematic review

2018

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BackgroundCommunicable diseases are a major concern during complex humanitarian emergencies (CHEs). Descriptions of risk factors for outbreaks are often non-specific and not easily generalisable to similar situations. This review attempts to capture relevant evidence and explore whether it is possible to better generalise the role of risk factors and risk factor cascades these factors may form.MethodsA systematic search of the key databases and websites was conducted. Search terms included terms for CHEs (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs definition) and terms for communicable diseases. Due to the types of evidence found, a thematic synthesis was conducted.Results26 articles met inclusion criteria. Key risk factors include crowded conditions, forced displacement, poor quality shelter, poor water, sanitation and hygiene, lack of healthcare facilities and lack of adequate surveillance. Most identified risk factors do not relate to specific diseases, or are specific to a group of diseases such as diarrhoeal diseases and not to a particular disease within that group. Risk factors are often listed in general terms but are poorly evidenced, not contextualised and not considered with respect to interaction effects in individual publications. The high level of the inter-relatedness of risk factors became evident, demonstrating risk factor cascades that are triggered by individual risk factors or clusters of risk factors.ConclusionsCHEs pose a significant threat to public health. More rigorous research on the risk of disease outbreaks in CHEs is needed, from a practitioner and from an academic point of view.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk factors and risk factor cascades for communicable disease outbreaks in complex humanitarian emergencies: a qualitative systematic review

2018

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“…The United States is currently a prolific producer of disaster literature, and recent disasters there have served as “focusing events.” Public health nurses and emergency managers have therefore been propelled to rapidly review their resources, roles, and response capabilities (Chiu & Polivka, ). Public health nurses in the United States have become the natural choice for community disaster response due to their ubiquity and well understood role lending itself well to the disaster preparedness and response (Fisher et al ., ; Spencer & Spellman, ). Public health nurses have also been very active in publishing disaster literature.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disaster preparedness and response: Challenges for Australian public health nurses – A literature review

Rokkas

Cornell

Steenkamp

2014

Nursing & Health Sciences

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To date, Australia has not had to respond to a nationwide catastrophic event. However, over the past decade, heat waves, bushfires, cyclones, and floods have significantly challenged Australia's disaster preparedness and the surge capacity of local and regional health systems. Given that disaster events are predicted to increase in impact and frequency, the health workforce needs to be prepared for and able to respond effectively to a disaster. To be effective, nurses must be clear regarding their role in a disaster and be able to articulate the value and relevance of this role to communities and the professionals they work with. Since almost all disasters will exert some impact on public health, it is expedient to prepare the public health nursing workforce within Australia. This paper highlights issues currently facing disaster nursing and focuses on the challenges for Australian public health nurses responding to and preparing for disasters within Australia. The paper specifically addresses public health nurses' awareness regarding their roles in disaster preparation and response, given their unique skills and central position in public health.

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“…Armed conflict and violence together foster a climate of insecurity which is conducive to disease outbreaks through a variety of mechanisms [26–35]. Population displacement leads to a lack of access to health services [27, 30, 36–38] and generally unsafe living conditions, both in camp and community settings [26, 27, 29–32, 34–47]. A lack or breakdown of government services can lead to a breakdown of health related infrastructure including individual health services and population health services such as vaccination [26, 27, 29, 30, 32–36, 38–45, 47–49] as well as a breakdown of other (critical) infrastructure and coordination [30, 32, 34, 35, 37, 50].…”

Section: The Updated Par Model For Health Emergenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re-) conceptualising vulnerability as a part of risk in global health emergency response: updating the pressure and release model for global health emergencies

Hammer

Brainard

Innes

et al. 2019

Emerg Themes Epidemiol

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Vulnerability has become a key concept in emergency response research and is being critically discussed across several disciplines. While the concept has been adopted into global health, its conceptualisation and especially its role in the conceptualisation of risk and therefore in risk assessments is still lacking. This paper uses the risk concept pioneered in hazard research that assumes that risk is a function of the interaction between hazard and vulnerability rather than the neo-liberal conceptualisation of vulnerability and vulnerable groups and communities. By seeking to modify the original pressure and release model, the paper unpacks the representation or lack of representation of vulnerability in risk assessments in global health emergency response and discusses what benefits can be gained from making the underlying assumptions about vulnerability, which are present whether vulnerability is sufficiently conceptualised and consciously included or not, explicit. The paper argues that discussions about risk in global health emergencies should be better grounded in a theoretical understanding of the concept of vulnerability and that this theoretical understanding needs to inform risk assessments which implicitly used the concept of vulnerability. By using the hazard research approach to vulnerability, it offers an alternative narrative with new perspectives on the value and limits of vulnerability as a concept and a tool.

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Health Issues in Humanitarian Emergencies

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Risk factors and risk factor cascades for communicable disease outbreaks in complex humanitarian emergencies: a qualitative systematic review

Risk factors and risk factor cascades for communicable disease outbreaks in complex humanitarian emergencies: a qualitative systematic review

Disaster preparedness and response: Challenges for Australian public health nurses – A literature review

(Re-) conceptualising vulnerability as a part of risk in global health emergency response: updating the pressure and release model for global health emergencies

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