Disaster management

• Disaster management
3 fundamental aspects
1.Disaster response
2.Disaster preparation
3.Disaster mitigation
1.Disaster response
Most injuries are sustained during the impact and thus , the
greatest need for emergency care occurs in the first few hours.
The management of mass casualties divided in to
1.Search ,rescue and first aid
Most immediate help comes from the uninjured survivors.
Field care
Most injured persons converge spontaneously to health
facilities using whatever transport is available, regardless of the
facilities, operating status.
Provisions should be made for food and shelter
A centre should be established for inquiries
• Triage
• Rapidly classifying the injured on the basis
of the severity
• It must be adopted to locally available skill
• Higher priority is granted to those who need
Immediate life saving intervention
• Lowest priority to moribund persons
• The most common classification uses the
internationally accepted four color code
system
• Red indicates high priority
• Yellow indicate medium priority
• Green indicates ambulatory
• Black indicates dead or moribund persons
• Local health workers should be taught the
principles of triage as part of disaster training
• Persons with minor or moderate injuries
should be treated at their own homes.
• The seriously injured should be transported to
hospitals.
• Tagging
• All patients should be identified with tags
stating their name , age, place of origin triage
category, diagnosis and initial treatment
• Identification of dead
• Care of the dead include
• 1.removal of the dead from disaster scene
• 2. Shifting to the mortuary
• 3.Identification
• 4.reception of bereaved relatives
• Proper respect for dead is of great importance
• Relief phase.
• The type and quantity of humanitarian relief
supplies are usually determined by two main
factors.
• 1.the type of disaster since distinct even have
different effect on the population
• 2.The type and quantity of supplies available
locally
• There are four principal components in managing humanitarian supplies.
1.Acquisition of supplies
2.Transportation
3.Storage
4.Distribution
• Epidemiological surveillance and disease control[see textbook]
• Vaccination
• Mass vaccination programmes , usually against typhoid ,cholera and
tetanus.
• The WHO does not recommend typhoid and cholera vaccine in routine
use in endemic areas , because they have not yet been proven effective as
a large scale public health measures .However these vaccines are
recommended for health workers.
• Supplying safe drinking water and proper disposal of excreta
• continue to be the most practical and effective strategy.
• Mass vaccination of tetanus is unnecessary
• The best protection is maintenance of a high level of immunity in the
general population by routine vaccination before the disaster occurs and
adequate wound cleaning and treatment.
• If tetanus immunization was received more than 5years ago, who has
sustained an open wound a tetanus toxoid booster is an effective
preventive measures.
• Nutrition
• Nutritional problem is an important
problem in risk group after disaster.
• Food relief programme will be effective.
• include:
• a]assessing the food supplies after the
disaster.
• b]gauging the nutritional needs of the
affected population
• c] Calculating daily food ration and need
for large population group.
• d]monitoring the nutritional status of the
affected population.
• Rehabilitation
• Restoration of the pre disaster condition
• Rehabilitation start from the first movement of
a disaster
• In first week after disaster the pattern of health
needs will change rapidly
• Moving from casualty treatment to more
routine primary health care
• Priorities also shift from health care towards
environmental health measures
• Water supply.
• Foodsafety
• Basic sanitation and personal hygiene
• Basic sanitation and personal hygiene
• Vector control
• 2.Disaster mitigation
• Emergency prevention and mitigation involves
measures to prevent hazards from causing emergency
and lessens the effects of emergency.
• Include
• Flood mitigation work
• appropriate land - use planning
• improved building code
• reduction or protection of vulnerable
population and structures.
• Aim to reduce the vulnerability of the system
• Improving the structural quality of houses , schools
and other public and private building s
•
• Although mitigation in this section has clear
health implication the direct responsibility of the
health sector is limited , including water supply
and sewerage systems
• Mitigation complements the disaster
preparedness and disaster response activities
• 3 .Disaster preparedness
• Emergency preparedness is a programme of
long term development activities whose goals are
to strengthen the overall capacity and capability
of a country to manage efficiently all types of
emergency. It should bring about an orderly
transition from relief through recovery and back
to sustained development.
• Object is to ensure the appropriate system for
immediate help.
• The reasons of community preparedness are
1.Members of the community have been most to lose
from being vulnerable to disaster and most to gain
from an effective and appropriate emergency
preparedness programmes.
2. Those who first respond to an emergency come
from within the community When transport and
communications are disrupted an external emergency
response may not arrive for days.
3.Resources are most easily pooled at the community
level and every community possesses capabilities .
• Failure to exploit these capabilities is poor
management.
• 4. Sustained development is best achieved by
allowing emergency affected communities to
design manage and implement internal and
external assistance programme.
• The system known by a variety of names
depending on the country depends on the co
ordination of a variety of sectors to carryout
the various tasks.[see textbook]