Each year millions of people around the world are affected by natural and manmade disasters. The consequences of natural disasters in terms of health are complex. Disasters directly impact the health of the population resulting in physical trauma, acute disease, and emotional trauma. Furthermore, disasters may increase the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic and infectious diseases ...

Recent natural disasters have brought forth the need for disaster preparedness, planning, and management. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the usefulness of websites in dealing with a natural disaster. However, little is known about the necessary contents and structures of web-based information management for natural disaster preparation. In this paper, we focus on developing the ontology structu...

abstract background: nurses are members of the health care team for crisis response. identifying nurses’ capability in responding to a disaster and promoting their preparedness will lead to effective use of human resources and decreasing the detrimental effects of disaster. the purpose of this article was to determine emergency nurses’ competences in triage, life support, and basic clinical ski...

OBJECTIVES The main objective of this pilot study was to measure the effectiveness of a 1-year comprehensive training program on the long-term cognitive competence in disaster preparedness among attending emergency physicians (EPs). DESIGN Ten attending EPs participated in a year-long training program in disaster preparedness and management. A baseline pretraining test and self-evaluation que...

Responding to the deaths and suffering of older adults in long-term care facilities following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the John A. Hartford Foundation funded an initiative called Hurricane and Disaster Preparedness for Long-Term Care Facilities. Long-term care providers are now acknowledged as health care providers by most federal and state emergency response centers. This paper des...

OBJECTIVE Fatalities and injuries during an earthquake can be reduced by taking preemptive measures before-hand, and furniture anchoring is an important safety measure for all residents. This study sought to clarify the factors associated with furniture anchoring within the home. METHODS A self-administered mail survey was completed from July to August 2010 by 3500 men and women between the a...

The primary objective of the research is to provide detailed information on various social aspects of the Marmara earthquake. In particular, the research focuses on activities aimed at restoring basic social functions to the impacted region during the early recovery phase of the disaster. This paper examines three of those functions: (1) housing, (2) education, and (3) health care. The paper co...