Introduction to public health Definition, Scope, and Achievements of Public Health According to the World Health Organization, public health “refers to all organized measures—whether public or private—to prevent disease, promote…
Acknowledgments Thanks to Alysa B. Koloms and Pooja Patel for their contributions to this chapter. Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm. —Hippocrates Organized…
This chapter outlines key points in understanding state-level emergency response functions within the United States, focusing on medical and public health operations. Emergency response systems vary from country to country….
All disasters are local. Regardless of type, magnitude, or progression, disasters affect communities. Community responders will be the first on the scene and will remain for recovery operations well after…
The important goals of disaster and mass casualty incident (MCI) response are to protect and to save life. When a disaster strikes a population, people expect that leaders, local authorities,…
Response to emergencies and disasters for the protection of life, health, safety, and the preservation of property is a government responsibility. In the United States, governors, not the president, are…
Medical practitioners and health officials train for decades to provide run-of-the-mill health services. How should their choices change in times of disaster, that is, during “a serious disruption of the…
Children, along with the elderly and pregnant women, are the most vulnerable populations in disasters. In developing countries, children also make up a disproportionate percentage of the population, as exemplified…
This chapter is designed to examine the impacts of disaster on displaced populations and refugees of multiple trauma events. The aims therefore are to highlight the processes of psychological triage,…
By definition, the hospital is an institution providing medical and surgical treatment and nursing care for sick or injured people. The word hospital comes from the Latin hospes , signifying…
