Disaster

The vulnerability of mankind to disasters of various types has increased considerably all over the world. The situation in India is not better since 55 per cent of India’s landmass is prone to earthquakes; 68 per cent is vulnerable to drought; 12 per cent to floods; and 8 per cent to cyclones apart from the heat waves, and severe storms. Odisha, one of the developing coastal states of India, with a coastline of around 495 km and a population of about 43 million, is most prone to natural disasters like super cyclones and major floods every year. It has witnessed and suffered a number of super cyclones and floods in the last ten years. Such conditions give rise to various health hazards and diseases. Such an environment demands for a nodal agency which is dedicated towards public health surveillance during disasters in the state of Odisha, India. This paper tries to put forth the goals, requirement and role in setting up a centre for disaster preparedness for preparedness and surveillance during disaster. The paper also discusses various challenges and roadblocks in establishing such an institute.

Objective

To setup a nodal agency called the Centre for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP) dedicated towards public health surveillance during disasters in the state of Odisha, India. For better public health preparedness in disaster management the objectives of CPHP will be to: 1. To strengthen public health surveillance and preparedness for disaster management, through research, capacity building and action. 2. To act as a comprehensive technical support unit and resource centre for State Government of Odisha, India on public health preparedness for disaster management and to eventually provide similar support to other states of India. 3. To collaborate with National Disaster Management Authority to provide support in surveillance, preparedness and capacity building during public health emergencies. 4. To become a national centre of excellence in the area, in due course of time.

The October 2010 eruption of Mt Merapi (the most active volcano in the Indonesia that erupts at 5-years intervals) claimed 141 lives, injured 453 people and displaced at least 278,000 people. This geological event became a disaster as national and international agencies had to step in to assist the Yogyakarta Province and Sleman District Administrations in dealing with the devastation caused by the pyroclastic flows. Because of its cyclic nature the task of the local governments is to improve the hazard mitigation system and to increase the resiliency of the population.

On 22 July 2013 the Volcano spewed ash clouds and people of two villages of the Cangkringan Sub-District evacuated themselves to the local village halls. The hazards posed by the ash clouds of the volcano and by the displacement of vulnerable populations, did cause certain physical and emotional sufferings, but could be controlled by the local administration.

Objective

To examine whether the danger zone District Health Office (DHO) and sub-district Health Centers (HCs) were employing an inter-disaster Public Health Surveillance-Response (PH S-R) System after the October 2010 Mt Merapi eruption and a pre-disaster PH S-R System during the July 2013 Mt Merapi eruption.

During all phases of the disaster management cycle, PH surveillance plays a valuable role. Surveillance provides PH officials and stakeholders the information they need to respond to disasters and take action in an appropriate and timely manner. Despite the fact that surveillance provides a valuable function in disasters, a study by the Disaster Epidemiology Subcommittee of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) found that there are still significant differences, across states, in their use of disaster surveillance. Further, there is no standardized guidance on implementing or modifying surveillance for a domestic disaster. This document seeks to fill this gap, providing guidance on planning, initiating, conducting, and evaluating disaster PH surveillance in the U.S.

Objective

Our objectives are to describe and receive feedback on a disaster surveillance guidance document that can be used by state and local health departments, to fill the gaps in public health (PH) disaster morbidity and mortality surveillance.

Infectious disease outbreaks during crises can be controlled by detecting epidemics at their earliest possible stages through cost effective and time efficient data analytical approaches. The slow or non reporting is a real gap in existing reporting systems that delays in receiving the disease alerts and outbreaks, and hence delays in response causing high burden of morbidity and mortality, especially during crises situation. As on contrary, the functioning electronic databases for fast and reliable disease early warning and response networks (EWARN) have been found very effective in early detection, confirmation and response to disease outbreaks but launching the implementation of such systems is always time consuming due to resource constraints and other limitations during crises. Hence introduction of time efficient data analytical approaches can serve as a fast and reliable alternative for electronic databases during the launching phases, and may facilitate assessment of epidemics and outbreak situation by ensuring immediate, reliable and fully functional disease reporting and analysis until online database becomes fully functional and adopted by authorities.

Objective

To assess the epidemic and outbreak situations during emergencies through development and application of a data summarization techniques while launching electronic disease early warning systems (eDEWS) in resource poor countries