All disasters—whether natural or human generated—have their own unique epidemiology and patterns of health outcomes on the populations they afflict. Commonly defined, epidemiology is the study of the distribution and…
Measures of effectiveness (MOEs) define quantitative and qualitative management tools that provide means for measuring the effectiveness, performance, and outcome of an operation, strategy, or project. They allude to a…
Acknowledgment A special thank you to my mentor, Kenneth Grey (retired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] branch chief and developer of the CDC’s first emergency operations unit and…
There are four phases of emergency management as noted in the following: 1. Preparedness: Planning a response to a disaster. 2. Response: Activities that occur immediately after a disaster. These…
Disaster education, regardless of the audience, has two goals: prevention of disasters and mitigation of disaster effects, including improved outcome for victims and safety for responders. Disaster education should be…
Most disasters create a predictable pattern of public health consequences, though the pattern varies according to the type of disaster. The types of disasters that may be expected and the…
Displaced populations have occurred throughout the history of humankind. A large population can be displaced by a number of events. These include, but are not limited to, natural disasters (e.g.,…
In the wake of natural and human-made disasters, displaced populations, often living in overcrowded shelters with disrupted access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation systems, and adequate medical services, face…
Communication and information management from the field to the care facilities are consistently challenging during disaster response. A critical interdependence exists among the following: accurate information from the field about…
Offering help to people in need is a basic human instinct. During the war in Yugoslavia (1999), thousands of people were able to survive because of donations from foreign governments…
