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Health Emergencies and Disasters Preparedness

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 646

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Interests: infectious diseases; natural hazards; infectious disease epidemiology; impact of natural hazards on public health; infectious disease surveillance

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Guest Editor
Department of Dynamic Tectonic Applied Geology, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, School of Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15784 Athens, Greece
Interests: earth sciences; natural hazards; prevention and management of disasters induced by natural hazards; environmental, disasters and crises management strategies; impact of natural hazards on public health
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Infectious disease outbreaks and natural, technological and other hazards may have adverse effects on people’s health, the economy, politics and society. However, they can also be health emergencies in their own nature such as the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the mpox emergency and seasonal infectious diseases, among others. Emergencies and disasters can trigger a variety of hazards in the affected areas, threatening all involved in the emergency response and recovery efforts. These associated hazards may be different from the main emergency event. A typical example comprises geophysical hazards with considerable impact capable of causing outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The complexity of an emergency response is greater when hazards of different types occur simultaneously or evolve in parallel. A typical recent example is the evolving COVID-19 pandemic that created many challenges, especially in disaster management and public health. These challenges are attributed to incompatibilities between the emergency response actions to manage disaster impact and the pandemic's mitigation measures. They also highlighted as never before the importance and necessity of effective preparedness, not only of Civil Protection staff and Public Health organizations but also the personal preparedness of individuals, families and communities. 

The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect original research papers and reviews covering recent advances in health emergencies and disasters preparedness realted to the following topics:

  • Descriptive studies of past and active health emergencies and disasters related to pandemics, epidemics and outbreaks as well as to natural and technological hazards;
  • Health assessment and surveillance studies following health emergencies and disasters associated with natural hazards;
  • Effective policies, plans, strategies and initiatives to increase preparedness of institutions, communities, families and individuals to a range of public health threats, including, but not limited to, infectious diseases, non-infectious diseases, natural hazards and technological accidents and disasters;
  • Health emergencies and disasters preparedness perception studies;
  • Studies on lessons learned during responses to health emergencies.

Dr. Maria D. Mavrouli
Dr. Spyridon Mavroulis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • health emergencies
  • preparedness
  • disasters
  • response
  • pandemics
  • infectious disease outbreaks
  • natural hazards
  • surveillance
  • health assessment studies
  • early detection
  • risk perception

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 1245 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Gender and Age Demographics of Patients Treated by Emergency Medical Teams during Disasters
by Noriyuki Shiroma, Odgerel Chimed-Ochir, Yui Yumiya, Matchecane Cossa, Isse Ussene, Yoshiki Toyokuni, Kayako Chishima, Kouki Akahoshi, Seiji Mimura, Akinori Wakai, Hisayoshi Kondo, Yuichi Koido, Flavio Salio, Ryoma Kayano and Tatsuhiko Kubo
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(6), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21060696 - 28 May 2024
Viewed by 323
Abstract
Background: Standardized health-data collection enables effective disaster responses and patient care. Emergency medical teams use the Japan Surveillance in Post-Extreme Emergencies and Disasters (J-SPEED) reporting template to collect patient data. EMTs submit data on treated patients to an EMT coordination cell. The World [...] Read more.
Background: Standardized health-data collection enables effective disaster responses and patient care. Emergency medical teams use the Japan Surveillance in Post-Extreme Emergencies and Disasters (J-SPEED) reporting template to collect patient data. EMTs submit data on treated patients to an EMT coordination cell. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) EMT minimum dataset (MDS) offers an international standard for disaster data collection. Goal: The goal of this study was to analyze age and gender distribution of medical consultations in EMT during disasters. Methods: Data collected from 2016 to 2020 using the J-SPEED/MDS tools during six disasters in Japan and Mozambique were analyzed. Linear regression with data smoothing via the moving average method was employed to identify trends in medical consultations based on age and gender. Results: 31,056 consultations were recorded: 13,958 in Japan and 17,098 in Mozambique. Women accounted for 56.3% and 55.7% of examinees in Japan and Mozambique, respectively. Children accounted for 6.8% of consultations in Japan and 28.1% in Mozambique. Elders accounted for 1.32 and 1.52 times more consultations than adults in Japan and Mozambique, respectively. Conclusions: Study findings highlight the importance of considering age-specific healthcare requirements in disaster planning. Real-time data collection tools such as J-SPEED and MDS, which generate both daily reports and raw data for in-depth analysis, facilitate the validation of equitable access to healthcare services, emphasize the specific needs of vulnerable groups, and enable the consideration of cultural preferences to improve healthcare provision by EMTs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Emergencies and Disasters Preparedness)
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