Although recent emergencies or disasters have underscored the vital role of nongovernmental (NGO) resources, they remain not well understood or leveraged. We intended to develop an assets framework that identifies relevant NGO resources for disaster preparedness and response that can be used to assess their availability at state and local levels.

We conducted a search of peer-reviewed publications to identify existing asset frameworks, and reviewed policy documents and gray literature to identify roles of NGOs in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. A standardized data abstraction form was used to organize the results by NGO sector.

We organized NGO assets into 5 categories: competencies, money, infrastructure or equipment, services, relationships, and data for each of the 11 sectors designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 2011 preparedness capabilities.

Our findings showed that the capacity of each sector to capture data on each asset type needs strengthening so that data can be merged for just-in-time analysis to indicate where additional relief is needed. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;0:1–6)

The aim of this study is to characterize the injury profiles and outcomes of victims of a tornado in Jiangsu Province, China.

This study retrospectively investigated the clinical records of 144 patients treated at a teaching hospital due to a tornado. Each patient’s demographic data, diagnosis, injury types, causes of injury, infection status, and outcomes were all reviewed.

Of the 144 patients, 64 (44.4%) were male, and 80 (55.6%) were female. The patients’ ages ranged from 2 months to 94 years; 91 (63.19%) were admitted within the first 12 h after the disaster. The most frequently injured sites were the body surfaces (24.48%), followed by the limbs and pelvis (21.79%) and chest (20.3%). Soft-tissue injuries and fractures were the most frequent injuries. Traumatic brain injuries were the main causes of death. Tornado-related injuries were primarily caused by flying/falling bricks, wood, and glass. Twenty-three (15.9%) patients suffered from infections, which consisted mainly of skin/soft tissue infections and pneumonia.

Destructive tornadoes often cause heavy casualties with little warning. Medical aid agencies must be prepared to accommodate the massive numbers of injured patients after a catastrophe. Proper triage and prompt treatment of injured victims may decrease mortality. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;xx:xxx-xxx).

The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the community-based academic partnership roles in disaster risk management.

The assessment of the documents was conducted by reviewing abstracts and full papers of the available studies, which provided considerable background and promoted knowledge in academic interventional roles in disaster risk management. The articles were searched with a wide range of key words related to the research topic. The studies included the research available between 2000 and September 2017 in the English language. The selection of articles was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist.

Of 997 articles, we selected 12 full-text articles that met the criteria for the final review based on the study objective. The results show that, although universities can play multidirectional roles in disaster risk management phases, the development of the academic partnership potential and collaboration for disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction for stakeholders is necessary.

The universities’ potential in providing sufficient disaster health literacy is not currently considered important enough in communities.Therefore, the proper context-bound models of development based on a community’s skills and universities’ potential should receive more attention.

Volunteers need considerable resiliency to cope with formidable challenges during their operations in disaster scenes. The present study was conducted to identify factors affecting the different aspects of resiliency among volunteers in disasters.

The databases of Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, World Health Organization Library, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Library, PsycArticles, and SafetyLit were searched until September 29, 2018. The main search terms were resiliency, disaster, humanitarian aid worker, and volunteer.

A total of 548 documents were obtained and screened based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A number of 8 documents was selected for the final analysis. The main factors contributing to the resilience of volunteers at the 3 stages of pre-, during, and post-disasters were classified into 3 groups of individual, environmental, and organizational. Important factors affecting resilience of volunteers in disasters included previous disaster response experience and disaster-related training.

Resiliency should be deemed integral to relief operations. Considering the main factors affecting volunteers’ resiliency, it is highly suggested that organizations active in humanitarian endeavors explore the factors impacting on resilience among their volunteers via various research methods and seek to select those with higher degrees of resilience in order to avert untoward consequences in their missions.

Assess Hurricane Sandy’s impact on primary care providers’ services in the Rockaways.

In-person surveys were conducted in 2014. A list of 46 health care sites in the area of interest was compiled and each site was called to offer participation in our survey. Respondents included physicians and practice administrators who remained familiar with Sandy-related operational challenges.

Of the 40 sites that opted in, most had been in their current location for more than 10 years (73%) and were a small practice (1 or 2 physicians) before Hurricane Sandy (75%). All but 2 (95%) had to temporarily close or relocate. All sites experienced electrical problems that impacted landline, fax, and Internet. Less than one-quarter (n = 9) reported having a plan for continuity of services before Hurricane Sandy, and 43% reported having a plan poststorm. The majority (80%) did not report coordinating with other primary care stakeholders or receiving support from government agencies during the Sandy response.

Hurricane Sandy significantly disrupted access to primary care in the Rockaways. Severe impact to site operations and infrastructure forced many practices to relocate. Greater emergency response and recovery planning is needed, including with government agencies, to minimize disruptions of access to primary care during disaster recovery. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:492–495)

The West African Disaster Preparedness Initiative held a disaster preparedness tabletop exercise with representatives from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in November 2015. The tabletop exercise was hosted by the Republic of Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organization and partners in Accra, Ghana.

ECOWAS Commission delegates and representatives from 10 member states were confronted with a series of simulated crises. Participants utilized existing national preparedness plans and web-based information technologies to research and communicate about internal disaster threats and those from neighboring countries. After each of the exercise’s three phases, facilitators distributed participant surveys.

A total of 106 individuals participated in the tabletop exercise. During the exercise, national teams utilizing well-developed disaster contingency plans and emergency operations center (EOC) standard operating procedures (SOPs) reached out to help less-prepared national teams. Key issues identified in the survey were language and cultural issues as barriers, effectiveness of disaster management agencies linked to heads of state, and the need for data sharing and real-time communication for situational awareness and multisector coordination.

This tabletop exercise helped improve and refine the ECOWAS regional and member states’ national SOPs that teams will employ to prepare for, respond to, and recover from future disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:400-404)

On January 9, 2014, a faulty storage tank leaked 10,000 gallons of an industrial coal-processing liquid into the Elk River in West Virginia, contaminating the drinking water of 9 counties collectively known as the Kanawha Valley. In the context of this event, we explored the relationship between social determinants and (1) the timeliness with which residents learned about the crisis, (2) the source of information, (3) opinions on the source of information, (4) information-seeking behaviors, and (5) knowledge acquired.

Between February 7 and 26, 2014, we conducted a survey of 690 adult residents of West Virginia. Descriptive statistics and multivariable statistical models were performed.

Information about water contamination spread quickly, with 88% of respondents from the affected counties hearing about the incident on the same day it occurred. Most people received the information from local television news (73%); social media users had 120% increased odds of knowing about the recommended behaviors. People who had a favorable opinion of the source of information demonstrated better knowledge of recommended behaviors.

The use of local television news during a crisis is important for timely dissemination of information. Information exposure across segments of the population differed on the basis of the population’s background characteristics. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:196–206)

Beta radiation from nuclear weapons fallout could pose a risk of cutaneous radiation injury (CRI) to evacuating populations but has been investigated only cursorily. This work examines 2 components of CRI necessary for estimating the potential public health consequences of exposure to fallout: dose protraction and depth of dose.

Dose protraction for dry and moist desquamation was examined by adapting the biological effective dose (BED) calculation to a hazard function calculation similar to those recommended by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements for other acute radiation injuries. Depth of burn was examined using Monte Carlo neutral Particle version 5 to model the penetration of beta radiation from fallout to different skin tissues.

Nonlinear least squares analysis of the BED calculation estimated the hazard function parameter θ1 (dose rate effectiveness factors) as 25.5 and 74.5 (Gy-eq)2 h−1 for dry and moist desquamation, respectively. Depth of dose models revealed that beta radiation is primarily absorbed in the dead skin layers and basal layer and that dose to underlying tissues is small (<5% of dose to basal layer).

The low relative dose to tissues below the basal layer suggests that radiation-induced necrosis or deep skin burns are unlikely from direct skin contamination with fallout. These results enable future modeling studies to better examine CRI risk and facilitate effectively managing and treating populations with specialized injuries from a nuclear detonation. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:463-469)

To describe social participation strategies and resilience in the people affected by the 2017 earthquakes in Mexico.

A cross-sectional study was carried out with 1504 participants from Mexico City, State of Mexico, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Puebla, and Morelos in November and December 2017. A nonprobabilistic convenience sampling method was used to recruit voluntary participants who met the inclusion criteria: age 18 or over and residents in damaged states at the time of the earthquakes. Postearthquake social participation strategies were assessed with the formats used in the postearthquake Chilean survey in 2010. The Spanish-validated version of the resilience scale RS-14 was applied for measuring resilience in the Mexican population.

The most frequent social participation strategies were related to emotional support and aid supplying water, food, and clothing. The highest resilience was observed in the state of Oaxaca and in Mexico City. Men, people age 40 or over, and people who defined themselves as indigenous were the most resilient.

Factors related to resilience were male gender, age over 40, did not participate in activities of help to the community, no household damage, and belonging to an indigenous community.

In Japan, with the revision of the Nuclear Emergency Response Guidelines in 2015, nuclear emergency medical assistance teams responsible for the medical treatment in the acute phase of nuclear disaster have been developed nationwide. The purpose of this research is to develop active learning materials for the education of medical staff, to confirm the educational effect of the materials, and to identify the gaps in nuclear disaster risk reduction in Japan.

We established a working group and created active learning materials. We trained members of the nuclear emergency medical assistance team using the developed active learning materials and then conducted a questionnaire survey for trainees who participated in the training.

Regarding the developed teaching materials, out of 33 trainees, 33 (100%) answered “easy to understand” or “a little understandable” to the item dealing with how to use the radiation detectors and attaching/detaching personal protective equipment. Regarding the simulation about practicing hospital support and medical provision, 3 (8%) answered “a little confusing.”

The study demonstrated that the developed materials have an educational effect. Additionally, the results of the trainee questionnaire showed the necessity for improvement in the triage system and new protocols to help both the patients and responders.

The emergency department (ED) of NYU Langone Medical Center was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, contributing to a public health disaster in New York City. We evaluated hospital-based acute care provided through the establishment of an urgent care center with an associated ED-run observation service (EDOS) that operated in the absence of an ED during this disaster.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all patients placed in an EDOS following a visit to an urgent care center during the 18 months of ED closure. We reviewed diagnoses, clinical protocols, selection criteria, and performance metrics.

Of 55,723 urgent care center visits, 15,498 patients were hospitalized, and 3167 of all hospitalized patients (20.4%) were placed in the EDOS. A total of 2660 EDOS patients (84%) were discharged from the EDOS. The 8 most frequently utilized clinical protocols accounted for 76% of the EDOS volume.

A diverse group of patients presenting to an urgent care center following the destruction of an ED by natural disaster can be cared for in an EDOS, regardless of association with a physical ED. An urgent care center with an associated EDOS can be implemented to provide patient care in a disaster situation. This may be useful when existing ED or hospital resources are compromised. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:405–410)

Clinical diagnostics in sudden onset disasters have historically been limited. We set out to design, implement, and evaluate a mobile diagnostic laboratory accompanying a type 2 emergency medical team (EMT) field hospital.

Available diagnostic platforms were reviewed and selected against in field need. Platforms included HemoCue301/WBC DIFF, i-STAT, BIOFIRE FILMARRAY multiplex rt-PCR, Olympus BX53 microscopy, ABO/Rh grouping, and specific rapid diagnostic tests. This equipment was trialed in Katherine, Australia, and Dili, Timor-Leste.

During the initial deployment, an evaluation of FilmArray tests was successful using blood culture identification, gastrointestinal, and respiratory panels. HemoCue301 (n = 20) hemoglobin values were compared on Sysmex XN 550 (r = 0.94). HemoCue WBC DIFF had some variation, dependent on the cell, when compared with Sysmex XN 550 (r = 0.88-0.16). i-STAT showed nonsignificant differences against Vitros 250. Further evaluation of FilmArray in Dili, Timor-Leste, diagnosed 117 pathogens on 168 FilmArray pouches, including 25 separate organisms on blood culture and 4 separate cerebrospinal fluid pathogens.

This mobile laboratory represents a major advance in sudden onset disaster. Setup of the service was quick (< 24 hr) and transport to site rapid. Future deployment in fragmented health systems after sudden onset disasters with EMT2 will now allow broader diagnostic capability.