Natural Disasters And Public Health Of The Affected Communities

Unsafe water supplies are often contaminated with infectious agents, toxic chemicals, and radiological hazards. In 2000, the World Health Organization and UNICEF identified some 2.4 billion people who did not have basic sanitation facilities, and 1.1 billion people without a safe drinking water supply. (Wagner, 2009) Some communities experienced diarrhea, caused by a variety of parasites, viruses, and bacteria that infect people as a result of contaminated drinking water or poor hygiene. In India, more than 500,000 children die from diarrhea every year. Like other tropical diseases, when diarrhea does not kill, it weakens, leaving people more susceptible to other infections, such as tuberculosis and HIV. (Whitman, 2008).

Some of the measures that the government has encouraged to help curb the problem is boiling of water. This is the cheapest option since the government cannot afford offering iodine tablets and the water filters. The Uganda Red Cross Society has also done its best during every outbreak of cholera like the severe 2006 incidence where more than 300,000 people within the capital city of Kampala were affected directly by the cholera pandemic (Disaster Relief Emergency Fund, 2008). However, this is treatment and not a preventive measure. Even so, this cheapest option

During an emergency such as flood disaster, public health personnel and public health nurse are tasked with different duties to help the victims. The main aim of the public health personnel is to provide health services to people and the community affected by the floods. It is therefore necessary for them to

The public health nurse has many resources available to help assist residents after a natural disaster. The priorities after a disaster such as a flood are for providing services in high-risk areas such as adequate and safe water, basic sanitation facilities, liquid and solid waste disposal, shelter, food protection, and personal hygiene. The public health nurse has access to written literature that can be provided to residents who are safe to remain in their homes, which describe food and water safety as well as hygiene measures. If residents are willing to leave an unsafe living environment, the public health nurse is able to locate shelters for temporary safe housing.

The primary response to the Haiti earthquake disaster would involve the issuance of the mandatory briefing, proper gear, and shots before taking off to Haiti. For Haiti nationals, immunization against outbreaks of measles, Hepatitis, and other communicable diseases would come in handy. Education in how to prevent, reduce and avoid spread of commun diseases during this type of event, will be essesntial. On the other hand, the secondary intervention would involve the evaluation of the damage, screening for injuries and diseases, such as infectious and communicable diseases. Finally, the tertiary intervention for the Haiti disaster would involve follow up care and post-traumatic stress educational forums for all the affected individuals (Katz,

Cholera is a small intestine infection caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholera (Finkelstein, 1996). It affects 3 to 5 million people worldwide, and as of 2010 causes 58,000 to 130,000 deaths a year (Lozano et al., 2012). Water filtering and chlorination have removed the threat of cholera in Europe and North America, however, it still affects some developing countries, like Haiti. The department of Grand’Anse in Haiti has been experiencing a cholera epidemic since October 2010; the worst one in recent history (CDC, 2016). Grand’Anse never had a cholera outbreak in recorded history until after the 2010 earthquake (BBC News, 2010). The earthquake occurred on January 12, 2010, and the outbreak began in October 2010. Waste from the outhouses used

The year 2017 has seen a plethora of deadly disasters. Disasters, natural or man-made, are extremely disturbing events that cause hardship, suffering, injury, and death. A disaster can be detrimental to human societies and their way of life. Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, mudslides, and wild fires can cause everlasting changes to humanity, biomes, and the planet. Likewise, man-made events, such as war, terrorist attacks, or toxic spills can be just as damaging. One job of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) is to insure that humanitarian aid is provided to relieve the pain and suffering caused by all types of disasters. In addition, saving lives by utilizing our resources is the main goal of the UN. Norman Borlag once stated, “The destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a decent standard of living for all mankind.” Therefore, the issues that will be addressed using the $50,000,000 plus anonymous contribution will involve providing humanitarian aid to disaster torn areas in order improve the standard of living and preserve human dignity. This is the most important dilemma facing the international community today.

Most of the people succumbed to diseases that arose from the sanitation, infections, and other health related issues that occurred after the disaster. This is because they lacked their own mechanisms of combating infections, sanitation issues, and post disaster mental issues (Huus, 2010). They also lacked response plans for a disaster of a higher magnitude.   For example, there was no disaster management system that showed the various protocols of managing a large-scale disaster.

In a blog post written by Sokari Ekine, the Nigerian social justice activist explains that cholera is an illness “exacerbated by heavy rains; poor sanitation; and limited clean water and associated poor hygiene” (Ekine, 2013). These components factor largely into the chosen intervention activities. Haiti is an island that experiences significant flooding due to its location in the hurricane belt; this flooding makes access to safe water a major issue in a nation with flimsy infrastructure (World Health Organization, 2011). This program plans to restore and improve water and sanitation facilities for they are the main mode of transmission for the cholera bacterium. The corresponding poor hygiene that stems from lack of safe water and sanitation will be addressed in the health education provided for community members.

The water source is important because cholera can be transmitted in feces that contain the strain of Vibrio Cholerae. Thus, the water can contaminated. The united nations have established a water quality monitoring system that is implemented in 56 health centers. They have constructed wastewater treatment plants, provided sewage management in internally displaced camps as well as built sanitary facilities in 240 schools. Besides creating proper infrastructure, the united nations have supplied critical items for prevention and treatment of cholera such as water purification tablets, soap and medical supplies and equipment. They have also purchased oral cholera vaccines that were administered to 110,000 people (UN Fact Sheet: Combatting Cholera in Haiti 2013). Even though the United Nations has reduced the risk of cholera for about 1.2 million people, the rest of the population is still suffering with the disease (UN Fact Sheet: Combatting Cholera in Haiti 2013).

Two out of every five people living in Sub-Saharan Africa lack safe water. A baby there is 500 times more likely to die from water-related illness than one from the United States. This is a serious ongoing issue that requires the rest of the world to take action. Water spreads diseases easily if the necessary precautions are not taken. Many developing African countries don’t have sewage treatment, or the people don’t have methods to filter and disinfect. Once a person is sick either there is no way to cure them, or medical care is too expensive, so they are left untreated with a high risk of death. Although many believe that the fight for sanitary water in Africa is insurmountable, people in these developing countries can overcome their challenge to access clean water and avoid water-borne diseases through proper sewage treatment facilities, universal water filtration and medical care.

Another effect in Haiti as consequence of the earthquake was the contamination and bad sanitation in the country. After the earthquake all the water systems were broke and were almost not sewage water. The inhabitants did not have the resources to have prevention in that chaos. Those factors provoked in the patients and also in those person that were living in refugees some symptoms as watery diarrhea, nausea, vomit and dehydration. With all those symptoms the patients were diagnosed with a virus known as Cholera. This virus spread quickly in the country between the population that were leaving deplorable situations, without sanitation. this case was known as The Cholera Outbreak. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC said

A major challenge and cause of serious medical issues in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of access to a clean water supply. There are 345 million people that lack access to water in Africa. Unfortunately, when water is available it is high in contamination. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they cannot be maintained properly to due to limited financial resources. Water quality testing is not performed as often as necessary and the people are unaware that the water may not be safe to drink. Oftentimes, when a source of water has been provided, the quantity of water is often given more attention over the quality of. Lack of clean drinking is the leading cause of diarrheal diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa and causes 7.7% of deaths in Africa. Diarrhea is caused by numerous bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms most of which can be spread by contaminated water. The importance of diarrheal diseases has mostly been overlooked. Through UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) there have been some accomplishments during the

Since there were so many healthcare facilities destroyed from the earthquake, the government quickly realized that they needed to aid in solving this problem. Therefore, they decided to build four hospitals almost immediately. “Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to manage four hospitals built to replace the temporary structures that it set up immediately after the earthquake, where tens of thousands of Haitians benefit from free, high-quality care” (MSF, 2013). The government seemed to make a rational decision contemplating how many Haitians would be without medical care in the time of the earthquake. While the government did make this sensible decision, there are still delays in relays of their healthcare system much due to their poor economic status. Consequently, their healthcare system needs to be pushed to the top of the list for the Haitian authorities and the partnering nations. At the moment, there is a transition being made from emergency humanitarian-based response towards a development-based response. Planning and organization of funding will have to become a priority for Haiti to fix any situation of the cholera outbreak. Furthermore, it will be crucial that they also look at funding for any emergency responses that could

In the United States, people who live in poverty are already one of the most vulnerable populations and it is this population that is heavily impacted by public policy relating to natural disasters. Often, public policies relating to disaster preparedness and recovery are not discussed until after a natural disaster takes place which is too late to do any good for the people affected and who are devastated almost beyond comprehension. The role of government in disaster preparedness and recovery became a “hot button” issue especially after Hurricane Katrina when the federal and local governments seemed to protect/help those who already had resources and not those with little to no resources. According to a Gallup Poll by Jones & Carroll (2005), forty-nine percent of respondents said that FEMA was most helpful to them while thirty-one percent of respondents said that nothing was helpful to them during recovery from Hurricane Katrina. This information indicates that there is a gap in services disaster relief policies and programs that needs to be filled.