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Infectious Diseases Outbreaks Following Natural Disasters: Risk Assessment, Prevention, and Control

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Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Disaster Management

Part of the book series: Hot Topics in Acute Care Surgery and Trauma ((HTACST))

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Abstract

Infectious diseases outbreaks following natural disasters are relatively rare, especially in developed countries. Disease endemicity, environmental factors, health infrastructure, poverty, inequality, political stability, and the level of appropriate response after a disaster event play the most critical role in the occurrence of infectious diseases. Infectious diseases can be waterborne, foodborne, vector-borne or due to person-to-person transmission and other various types of exposures.

Observational data from past natural disasters show that acute respiratory infections, diarrhea and soft tissue infections are the most common diseases that occur. However, various epidemics, disease clusters, or sporadic cases have been reported following natural disasters such as measles, diarrheal diseases (E. coli, noroviruses), cholera, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, leptospirosis, tetanus, skin infections, meningitis, malaria, and dengue fever.

Following a natural disaster event, adequate response depends on proper site planning for hosting displaced people, prevention, control measures, health promotion, surveillance, and deployment of adequate services for the management of infectious diseases.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Health-Disaster Medicine, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Athens, Greece

    Eleni Kakalou MD, MSc (Infectiologist)

  2. Department of Public and Integrated Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Costas Tsiamis MD, PhD (Asst Prof. of Public and Integrated Health)

Authors
  1. Eleni Kakalou MD, MSc
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  2. Costas Tsiamis MD, PhD
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Emmanouil Pikoulis

  2. Department of Surgery, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jay Doucet

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Kakalou, E., Tsiamis, C. (2021). Infectious Diseases Outbreaks Following Natural Disasters: Risk Assessment, Prevention, and Control. In: Pikoulis, E., Doucet, J. (eds) Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Disaster Management. Hot Topics in Acute Care Surgery and Trauma. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34116-9_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34116-9_40

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34115-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-34116-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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