At 9:28 pm on June 1, 2015, the cruise ship “Oriental Star” sank into Yangtze River in Jianli County, with 422 people killed. When the accident occurred, the Chinese government took immediate action and dispatched more than 9000 rescuers. The risk for outbreak of schistosomiasis was increased because of the shipwreck. Obviously it is critical to carry out risk assessment as soon as possible.

By means of the Delphi method, the situation was analyzed so that the government could fathom the severity of the accident. Then, through matrix and sigma-plotting (3-dimensional graphics) methods, related authorities performed risk assessment after site investigation.

The latest news reported that more than 9000 people were involved in the rescue. The affected river was analyzed and mapped using SigmaPlot software, according to which the possibility, harmfulness, and controllability of the accident were determined to be medium (6), medium (6), and poor (7), respectively.

The site of the accident where the cruise ship sank and rescue operations were carried out is a schistosomiasis epidemic area with high mortality and morbidity. The chance of an outbreak of the schistosomiasis epidemic in Jianli County is quite high. To protect people in this county from the epidemic, relevant logistic services should be arranged and all remains should be cleared up carefully. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:147–153)

This study explores the depressive symptoms in postpartum women during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Japan.

An online survey conducted from May 31 to June 6, 2020 resulted in 3073 responses obtained from mothers with infants < 12 mo.

The point prevalence of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score of ≥ 9 was 28.66% for primipara and 25.83% for multipara. Logistic regression analysis indicated a negative association between the COVID-19 crisis and EPDS ≥ 9; specifically, decreased social support and financial concern were identified as risk factors. The COVID-19–related experiences significantly increased the score of each factor of EPDS, ie, anxiety, anhedonia, and depression.

During the COVID-19 crisis, the number of mothers who faced depreciation in social support and income had increased. Moreover, spending their perinatal period during the crisis increased the propensity of facing unexpected changes, such as changes of hospitals for delivery, or cancellation of parenting classes. These multiple factors were associated with an elevated risk of depression in postpartum women. In a prolonged crisis, postpartum mental health should be treated carefully with the prevention of infection.

Three years after the 2013 Yolanda Typhoon, this study sought to determine the factors associated with the stress of the affected mothers and the health of the children on Leyte island, and the preparedness of the community to mitigate future potential disasters.

Three hundred mothers with children from 0 to 7 years old were selected through convenience sampling, structured interviews conducted using the Hurricane-Related Traumatic Experiences questionnaire and the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) Checklist 5 (PCL5), and the children’s weights and heights were measured.

The provisional PTSD prevalence was found to be 53.3% 3 y after Yolanda. The multiple regression analysis with multiple imputation for the missing values found that housing and childcare attitudes were significantly associated with preparedness.

This study concluded that living in multistoried houses was useful for disaster mitigation and that the caregiving responsibility for their children could be a disaster preparedness motivation for mothers.

Although dentists are valuable assets in identification teams during disaster events, forensic dentistry is not used effectively in the identification studies conducted in Turkey, and the importance of dental data is ignored. The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge of dentists regarding their duties and responsibilities during major disasters.

This descriptive study was conducted between December 2015 and June 2016. Registered dentists (n=20.280) of the Turkish Dental Association were invited to complete the organization’s online survey. A total of 539 dentists participated in the volunteer workshop. Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 22.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). The chi-square analysis was used to evaluate the knowledge level of dentists by group regarding disaster victim identification (DVI) – the process and procedure of recovering and identifying victims of major disasters (eg, earthquake, terrorist attack).

The dentists included in the study consisted of 320 (59.4%) females and 219 (40.6%) males with a mean age of 37.4±12.6 years. The number of specialists and general dentists were 249 (45.6%) and 297 (54.4%), respectively; 249 (69.71%) dentists who had knowledge about forensic dentistry stated that they received this information during their formal training. The percentage of dentists who were aware of the existence of an organization of a disaster response operation in Turkey was 74.2%, but only 20.5% (n=110) had knowledge about DVI. We found that 92.9% (n=104) of these dentists believed that dentists should be included in the team for the identification of disaster victims. On the other hand, only half (52.3%) of the dentists with knowledge of DVI wanted to work on the identification teams. The majority (99.1%) considered DNA analysis to be the safest method for identification.

Our findings show that, although dentists know about the identification process, they do not have enough relevant knowledge. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:533-538)

The aim of this study was to compare primary care appointment disruptions around Hurricanes Ike (2008) and Harvey (2017) and identify patterns that indicate differing continuity of primary care or care systems across events.

Primary care appointment records covering 5 wk before and after each storm were identified for Veterans Health Affairs (VA) facilities in the greater Houston and surrounding areas and a comparison group of VA facilities located elsewhere. Appointment disposition percentages were compared within and across storm events to assess care disruptions.

For Hurricane Harvey, 14% of primary care appointments were completed during the week of landfall (vs 33% for Hurricane Ike and 69% in comparison clinics), and 49% were completed the following week (vs 58% for Hurricane Ike and 71% for comparison clinics). By the second week after Hurricane Ike and third week after Harvey, the scheduled appointment completion percentage returned to prestorm levels of approximately 60%.

There were greater and more persistent care disruptions for Hurricane Harvey relative to Hurricane Ike. As catastrophic emergencies including major natural disasters and infectious disease pandemics become a more recognized threat to primary and preventive care delivery, health-care systems should consider implementing strategies to monitor and ensure primary care appointment continuity.

This study examined the differential impact of Hurricane Harvey on adolescent standardized Body Mass Index (zBMI), physical activity, diet, and perceived stress.

Prior to Hurricane Harvey, 175 ethnic minority adolescents were recruited from an independent school district in Houston. Height and weight were directly measured. The School Physical Activity and Nutrition Questionnaire assessed diet and physical activity. Stress was assessed with the Perceived Stress Scale. High hurricane impact was classified as at least 1 affirmative response to house damage, rescue, displacement, or going without food, water, or medicine. Repeated measures such as ANCOVA models were developed to assess differences in zBMI, physical activity, diet, and stress between the hurricane impact groups. Regression models were used to assess stress as a mediator of the hurricane impact and zBMI change relationship.

Students who were highly impacted by the hurricane had a greater decrease in zBMI than those less impacted from pre-hurricane to 15 weeks post-hurricane (95% CI 0.02 to 0.25, p<0.05). Physical activity and diet did not differ by impact. Perceived stress at 3 weeks post-hurricane mediated the impact and zBMI change relationship (β=-0.04 95% CI -0.12 to -0.002).

The decrease in zBMI among highly impacted students warrants further monitoring. Perceived stress, immediately following the hurricane, impacted student growth months later.