Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters

Abstract

The pressure of climate change, environmental degradation, and urbanisation, as well as the widening of socio-economic disparities have rendered the global population increasingly vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. With a primary focus on medical and public health humanitarian response to disasters, Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters provides a timely critical analysis of public health responses to natural disasters.Using a number of case studies and examples of innovative disaster response measures developed by international agencies and stakeholders, this book illustrates how theoretical understanding of public health issues can be practically applied in the context of humanitarian relief response. Starting with an introduction to public health principles within the context of medical and public health disaster and humanitarian response, the book goes on to explore key trends, threats and challenges in contemporary disaster medical response.This book provides a comprehensive overview of an emergent discipline and offers a unique multidisciplinary perspective across a range of relevant topics including the concepts of disaster preparedness and resilience, and key challenges in human health needs for the twenty-fi rst century. This book will be of interest to students of public health, disaster and emergency medicine and development studies, as well as to development and medical practitioners working within NGOs, development agencies, health authorities and public administration.

Long-Term and Immediate Impacts of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM) Education Interventions in a Rural Chinese Earthquake-Prone Transitional Village

“…Despite implementing similar health and emergency DRR programs in both disaster-prone communities (Chan 2018), our results show that the flood-prone residents were 1.60 times more likely to remember ORS preparation and composition details compared with the earthquake-prone community after the intervention. This pattern may be due to a higher risk of diarrheal diseases and occurrences (Chan 2017;Chan et al 2017a) in floodprone communities, and thus greater interest in the retention of related knowledge when compared with earthquakeprone communities. These findings highlight the importance of developing bottom-up disaster resilience programs according to the actual health risks and beliefs associated with the targeted communities, their respective disaster subtypes, post-disaster experiences, and perceived health needs.…”

“…To decrease the impact of disasters on people, Health-EDRM argues that disaster vulnerability should be reduced along with raising awareness and supporting preparedness through emergency and disaster risk management education interventions (WHO 2013). Disaster preparedness encompasses the activities that need to be pursued in advance of a disaster to ensure an effective response to the impact of hazards (Chan 2017). Previous studies have emphasized the importance of disaster preparedness (Wu et al 2018;Xu et al 2018), particularly of local communities, as the overall level of household preparedness is generally low (Ning et al 2013;Han et al 2017b;Wu et al 2018).…”

Commonalities between Disaster and Climate Change Risks for Health: A Theoretical Framework

“…This does not include those biological hazards which are also influenced by climate change. While the 8733 reported disaster deaths in 2016 was lower than in previous years [ 8 ], these mortality rates reflect the tip of the iceberg in terms of health impacts of climate change and disasters [ 9 , 10 ].…”

“…Climate change may trigger increased morbidity and mortality, as a result of climate-sensitive diseases, extreme weather events, increasing non-communicable diseases, and exacerbating existing health problems [ 14 ]. The complex interactions of both climate change and disasters with social, environmental and biological factors on individual and systems levels make their health impacts difficult to measure [ 9 , 10 , 15 , 16 ]. The true extent of health impacts of disasters is often underrepresented due to the reliance on mortality rates as indicators of health impacts, complexity of interactions leading to health impacts, and challenges in collecting data during, and in the aftermath of, disaster events [ 9 , 10 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…The complex interactions of both climate change and disasters with social, environmental and biological factors on individual and systems levels make their health impacts difficult to measure [ 9 , 10 , 15 , 16 ]. The true extent of health impacts of disasters is often underrepresented due to the reliance on mortality rates as indicators of health impacts, complexity of interactions leading to health impacts, and challenges in collecting data during, and in the aftermath of, disaster events [ 9 , 10 , 17 , 18 ]. Similarly, health impacts of climate change are notably difficult to measure due to the time and spatial scales over which health impacts arise, the complex pathways that involve both ecosystems and human systems, numerous stakeholder groups involved in coordinating and collecting data, as well as limited baseline data [ 15 , 16 , 19 , 20 ].…”