Health hazard after natural disasters in Bangladesh

Abstract

A natural disaster is defined as an event of nature, which overwhelms local resources and threatens the function and safety of the community. Our main natural disasters are related to Flood and torrential rain and related events.. Earth quake even tsunamis happened here but so far not to the devastating state. Technological disaster like collapse of big building unnoticed firebreak out in huge industry has claimed life here and risked prevailing health system. Volcanic eruptions, Wildfire, Wind/Snow storm are problem in other part of the world. Deaths associated with natural disasters, particularly rapid-onset disasters, are overwhelmingly due to blunt trauma, crush-related injuries, or drowning. The relationship between natural disasters and communicable diseases is frequently misconstrued. The risk for outbreaks is often presumed to be very high in the chaos that follows natural disasters, a fear likely derived from a perceived misconception of association between dead bodies and epidemics. The availability of safe water and sanitation facilities, the degree of crowding, the underlying health status of the population, and the availability of healthcare services all interact within the context of the local disease ecology to influence the risk for communicable diseases and death in the affected population. This review is prepared from research and review articles published in different journal.ECHO factsheet -2017.WHO technical reports,CDC fact sheet,Pan Am health organization report werealso studied. A public health approach to disaster risk managementshould focus on decreasing the vulnerability of communitiesthrough prevention and mitigation measures and increasingthe coping capacity and preparedness of the health sectorand community

Bangladesh J Medicine Jul 2017; 28(2) : 81-90