This book presents the first critical examination of the overlapping ethical, sociocultural, and policy-related issues surrounding disasters, global bioethics, and public health ethics. These issues are elucidated under the conceptual rubric: Public health disasters (PHDs). The book defines PHDs as public health issues with devastating social consequences, the attendant public health impacts of natural or man-made disasters, and latent or low prevalence public health issues with the potential to rapidly acquire pandemic capacities. This notion is illustrated using Ebola and pandemic influenza outbreaks, atypical drug-resistant tuberculosis, and the health emergencies of earthquakes as focal points. Drawing on an approach that reckons with microbial, existential, and anthropological realities; the book develops a relational-based global ethical framework that can help address the local, anthropological, ecological, and transnational dynamics of the ethical issues engendered by public health disasters. The book also charts some of the critical roles that relevant local and transnational stakeholders may play in translating the proposed global ethical framework from the sphere of concept to the arena of action. This title is of immense benefit to bioethics scholars, public and global health policy experts, as well as graduate students working in the area of global health, public health ethics, and disaster bioethics.

While serving as a physician overseas in resource-poor countries, Dr. James Chambers recognized the need for a practical, portable reference for non-specialist healthcare providers to orient them to common issues when serving in new situations, whether due to geography, austere environments, or complex humanitarian disasters. Field Guide to Global Health and Disaster Medicine draws on the experience, training, and perspectives of committed healthcare providers from diverse nations and backgrounds to provide the most essential information for maximum utility in the field—whether in a refugee camp, operating room, disaster response scene, or other demanding environment. - Helps providers prepare for service overseas, organize data to develop differential diagnoses, assimilate information on infectious and environmental diseases, and effectively serve the patients they will encounter. - Provides concise, easy-to-read coverage of how to approach a differential diagnosis for infectious diseases overseas; nutritional, sexual, and environmental conditions; surgical and anesthesia care; long-term and short-term systems-based challenges, and more. - Covers key topics such as Approach to Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Medical Response to Disasters, Mental Health in War and Crisis Regions, and Considerations for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. - Acknowledges the wide variance of different cultures, motives, resources, and limitations in the global health arena, and helps readers understand the factors which impact the efficacy and sustainability of care strategies.

The pressure of climate change, environmental degradation, and urbanisation, as well as the widening of socio- economic disparities have rendered the global population increasingly vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. With a primary focus on medical and public health humanitarian response to disasters, Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters provides a timely critical analysis of public health responses to natural disasters. Using a number of case studies and examples of innovative disaster response measures developed by international agencies and stakeholders, this book illustrates how theoretical understanding of public health issues can be practically applied in the context of humanitarian relief response. Starting with an introduction to public health principles within the context of medical and public health disaster and humanitarian response, the book goes on to explore key trends, threats and challenges in contemporary disaster medical response. This book provides a comprehensive overview of an emergent discipline and offers a unique multidisciplinary perspective across a range of relevant topics including the concepts of disaster preparedness and resilience, and key challenges in human health needs for the twenty-first century. This book will be of interest to students of public health, disaster and emergency medicine and development studies, as well as to development and medical practitioners working within NGOs, development agencies, health authorities and public administration.

The effects of a disaster on healthcare can range from conditions that immediately besiege the system with large numbers of patients, to catastrophes that strain its long-term sustainability. Nurses, as frontline health professionals, must have an understanding of the situations they may face before, during and after a disaster and they must develop the skills and strategies to provide effective and immediate care. International Disaster Nursing is the first truly comprehensive and internationally focused resource to address the diversity of issues and myriad scenarios that nurses and other health personnel could encounter during a disaster event. This text defines the many roles of the nurse within a multidisciplinary team, and aids the implementation of the community's disaster plans in a crisis. With an alarming increase in the occurrence of disasters in the last decade, International Disaster Nursing is the hallmark text in the field.

This book presents a decade of advances in the psychological, biological and social responses to disasters, helping medics and leaders prepare and react.

Public health officials have the traditional responsibilities of protecting the food supply, safeguarding against communicable disease, and ensuring safe and healthful conditions for the population. Beyond this, public health today is challenged in a way that it has never been before. Starting with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, public health officers have had to spend significant amounts of time addressing the threat of terrorism to human health. Hurricane Katrina was an unprecedented disaster for the United States. During the first weeks, the enormity of the event and the sheer response needs for public health became apparent. The tragic loss of human life overshadowed the ongoing social and economic disruption in a region that was already economically depressed. Hurricane Katrina reemphasized to the public and to policy makers the importance of addressing long-term needs after a disaster. On October 20, 2005, the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine held a workshop which convened members of the scientific community to highlight the status of the recovery effort, consider the ongoing challenges in the midst of a disaster, and facilitate scientific dialogue about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on people's health. Environmental Public Health Impacts of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina is the summary of this workshop. This report will inform the public health, first responder, and scientific communities on how the affected community can be helped in both the midterm and the near future. In addition, the report can provide guidance on how to use the information gathered about environmental health during a disaster to prepare for future events.

The recent COVID-19 global pandemic exemplifies the need for efficient, reliable, and real-time tools and technology for forecasting and predicting healthcare disasters as well as for helping to restrict the subsequent spread and fatality of deadly diseases. This new book discusses many of the innovative and state-of-the-art tools and technology that can help meet the challenges of predicting such disasters. The chapters offer a plethora of useful information for designing healthcare disaster management systems that can be dynamically configurable with implementation of today’s modern technology, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, IoT, data analytics, and machine learning. These can increase effectiveness in remote sensing technologies, data analytics, data storage, communication networks, geographic information system (GIS), and global positioning System (GPS), to name a few. This book discusses mathematical models using graph-based approaches for analyzing dynamic, heterogeneous, and unstructured data for applications in epidemiology. The authors also address the use of mobile applications for communication efforts and remote monitoring for gauging health and the effectiveness of preventive healthcare measures. The chapters discuss influencing factors that directly or indirectly target public health infrastructure that can lead to or exacerbate global health crises, such as extreme climate changes, refugee health crises, terrorism and cyberterrorism, and technology-related incidents. The book further looks at efficient methods to analyze disasters and how to deliver healthcare in areas of conflict and crisis. This important volume, Global Healthcare Disasters: Predicting the Unpredictable with Emerging Technologies, provides a bounty of useful information for health professionals, academicians, researchers, governmental agencies, and policymakers across the world to predict, mitigate, and manage global health disaster with emerging technologies.