Week5: Discussion Disaster

Week5: Discussion Disaster

Week 5 discussion Disaster and Communicable Disease Preparedness Preparing for disasters, terrorist threats, or communicable disease outbreaks is an important part of public health nursing. Visit the websites http://www.ready.gov (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and http://www.ready.gov/pandemic (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Review the steps for being prepared for a disaster or pandemic. Choose a natural or man-made disaster that could impact your community and discuss how a CHN can help the community to prepare or respond to this disaster. Choose a potential infectious disease outbreak and discuss how a CHN can help to prevent or respond to an outbreak. How well is your community prepared for a potential outbreak or disaster? Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2016). Ready: Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed. Retrieved from http://www.ready.gov/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2016). Pandemic. Retrieved from http://www.ready.gov/pandemic (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Natural disasters are tragic incidents originating from atmospheric, geologic and hydrologic changes. In recent decades, millions of people have been killed by natural disasters, resulting in economic damages.

Natural and complex disasters dramatically increase the mortality and morbidity due to communicable diseases. The major causes of communicable disease in disasters are categorized into four sections: Infections due to contaminated food and water, respiratory infections, vector and insect-borne diseases, and infections due to wounds and injuries. With appropriate intervention, high morbidity and mortality resulting from communicable diseases can be avoided to a great deal.

This review article tries to provide the best recommendations for planning and preparing to prevent communicable disease after disaster in two phases: before disaster and after disaster.

Disasters can be seen as sudden and terrible events causing great damage, loss or destruction. Disasters have been defined as ecologic troubles or severe and high-magnitude emergencies resulting in deaths, injuries, illnesses, and profound damages that cannot be successfully managed using ordinary procedures or resources and require external support.1 Disasters include earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, drought and landslides. These disasters may begin acutely or insidiously with dramatic health, social, and economic sequels.2 In recent decades, millions of people have been killed by natural disasters, adversely influenced the lives of more than one billion people, and caused significant economic compensations. Due to the latest report of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in the last decade (1999-2008), over 7100 disasters happened in the world that caused 1,243,480 deaths and over one billion US dollars damage.3 In 2005, 246 (42%) out of 650 severe natural hazard events recorded globally occurred in Asia killing over 97,000 (90% of the global total of 110,000 individuals) and affecting more than 150 million people. In 2006, 174 disasters affected 28 million people in Asia and the Pacific.