Every year, natural disasters impact families, communities, nations, and culture

Question

Every year, natural disasters impact families, communities, nations, and cultures. Whether the natural disaster is a flood, hurricane, tornado, fire or earthquake, it can alter the environment and cause potential health hazards.

For this module's initial discussion post, research a major national or global disaster that occurred in the last decade. Provide a brief summary of the disaster and explain the common public health risks that occurred as well as potential long-term health risks the victims might be facing. Do you think the type of natural disaster you studied has the highest risk of spreading diseases, or another type of natural disaster? Explain.

expand on your peer's ideas by sharing examples from your own experience or readings, suggesting outside resources to support the topic, and/or asking furthering questions to dig deeper into the topic

Explanation / Answer

On 25 April, a powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake, with its epicentre located at about 80 km north-west of Kathmandu, hit the country and left a trail of death and devastation, killing over 7,000 and injuring 14,123 others.

Among the affected districts, Sindhupalchowk was reported the maximum casualties with over 2,000 deaths, and several hundreds have died in Gorkha, where the epicentre of the deadly quake lay that fateful day.

Several report has also estimated $415 million as needed for vital humanitarian relief in the quake-ravaged country.

According to the reports, the number of houses wrecked in the earthquake 81 years ago stood at 80983. The 1934 Great Nepal-Bihar Earthquake, with its epicentre about 9.5 km south of Mt Everest, had killed several thousands people on both sides of the Himalayas and practically flattened Kathmandu Valley besides levelling several districts in Bihar like Munger, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga, destroying houses and grand palaces.

The 25 April quake has in many ways become an eerie reminder to the 1934 quake, which too has robbed the culturally-rich country of its architectural jewels, including the iconic Ghantaghar (clock tower). The Dharhara tower, a veritable landmark of the city was destroyed in 1934 as well, but was rebuilt later, only to meet a more cruel fate.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have reported that 25 National Societies are supporting the Nepalese Red Cross Society providing critical life-saving relief. The report said that they had provided nearly 15,000 tarpaulins and some 1,000 blankets as well as several hundreds of hygiene kits and thousands of water purification tablets.

In Kathmandu Valley, besides the capital - which has lost its architectural grandeur and overwhelming number of houses, Bhaktapur and Patan areas have also suffered major damage where streets by dark appear haunted now, with barely a soul to be seen.

Police force had patrolled the area to guard houses against theft and some of the heritage structures there. According to the report, 1,383 schools have also been damaged in the eartquake Kathmandu to Sindhupalchowk, with some even forced to do with a makeshift facility near river and in farm fields.

The risk of infectious disease outbreaks in the aftermath of natural disasters has usually been overemphasized by health officials and the media, leading to panic, confusion to public health activities.

The prolonged health impact of natural disasters on a community may be the consequence of the collapse of health facilities and healthcare systems, the disruption of surveillance and health programmes (immunization and vector control programmes), the limitation or destruction of farming activities (scarcity of food/food insecurity), or the interruption of ongoing treatments and use of unprescribed medications.

The risk factors for increased infectious diseases transmission and outbreaks are mainly associated with the after-effects of the disasters rather than to the primary disaster itself or to the corpses of those killed. These after-effects include displacement of populations (internally displaced persons and refugees), environmental changes and increased vector breeding sites.Diarrhoeal epidemics are frequently reported following natural disasters in developing countries.

Norovirus cases was alse reported in evacuation centres some weeks after the Nepal Earthquake, while various pathogens were confirmed among the population which lead to a significant increase in diarrhoeal disease incidences.

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