Ensuring the health and safety of civilian disaster medical assistance teams

摘要

Disasters are increasing in frequency. In the past 50 years, more than 10,000 disasters have been reported affecting 12 billion people and resulting in 12 million deaths. Disasters are more likely to occur in developing countries, where their effects may also be more pronounced. Economic status is related to disaster vulnerability with approximately 90% of disaster-related injuries and deaths occurring in countries with per capita income levels below US dollar760 per year. It is likely that there will be calls for disaster medical assistance and humanitarian aid following such disasters. 'Less developed countries are increasingly requesting assistance in developing programs leading to improved disaster preparedness, prevention and mitigation'. Even within developed countries, disasters occur and most hospitals would be unable to cope with anything more than small number of seriously injured patients without outside assistance. Despite the level of preparedness of any country, some large-scale disasterswill make the timely mobilisation of national and international resources necessary, particularly for developing nations.