Tadesse Luche, Ardalan Ali
Department of Disaster Public Health, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Private Consultant, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Department of Disaster & Emergency Health, Iran's National Institute of Health Research; Department of Disaster Public Health, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University.
PLoS Curr. 2014 Apr 1;6:ecurrents.dis.949664319ad451313b499f9c90cd9c0f. doi: 10.1371/currents.dis.949664319ad451313b499f9c90cd9c0f.
Natural and man-made disasters are prevailing in Ethiopia mainly due to drought, floods, landslides, earthquake, volcanic eruptions, and disease epidemics. Few studies so far have critically reviewed about medical responses to disasters and little information exists pertaining to the initiatives being undertaken by health sector from the perspective of basic disaster management cycle. This article aimed to review emergency health responses to disasters and other related interventions which have been undertaken in the health sector.
Relevant documents were identified by searches in the websites of different sectors in Ethiopian and international non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies. Using selected keywords, articles were also searched in the data bases of Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, and Google Scholar. In addition, pertinent articles from non-indexed journals were referred to.
Disaster management system in Ethiopia focused on response, recovery, and rehabilitation from 1974 to 1988; while the period between 1988 and 1993 marked the transition phase towards a more comprehensive approach. Theoretically, from 1993 onwards, the disaster management system has fully integrated the mitigation, prevention, and preparedness phases into already existing response and recovery approach, particularly for drought. This policy has changed the emergency response practices and the health sector has taken some initiatives in the area of emergency health care. Hence, drought early warning system, therapeutic feeding program in hospitals, health centers and posts in drought prone areas to manage promptly acute malnutrition cases have all been put in place. In addition, public health disease emergencies have been responded to at all levels of health care system.
Emergency health responses to drought and its ramifications such as acute malnutrition and epidemics have become more comprehensive in the context of basic disaster management phases; and impacts of drought and epidemics seem to be declining. However, the remaining challenge is to address disasters arising from other hazards such as flooding in terms of mitigation, prevention, preparedness and integrating them in the health care system. Key Words: Disaster, Emergency Health, Health System, Ethiopia.
埃塞俄比亚自然灾害和人为灾害频发，主要原因包括干旱、洪水、山体滑坡、地震、火山爆发以及疾病流行。迄今为止，很少有研究对灾害的医疗应对措施进行批判性审视，从基本灾害管理周期的角度来看，关于卫生部门所采取举措的信息也很少。本文旨在回顾卫生部门针对灾害所采取的应急卫生应对措施及其他相关干预措施。
通过在埃塞俄比亚不同部门网站、国际非政府组织和联合国机构网站上搜索来确定相关文件。使用选定的关键词，还在医学索引数据库（Medline）、护理学与健康领域数据库（CINAHL）、斯高帕斯数据库（Scopus）和谷歌学术数据库中搜索文章。此外，还参考了非索引期刊中的相关文章。
1974年至1988年期间，埃塞俄比亚的灾害管理系统侧重于应对、恢复和重建；而1988年至1993年期间是向更全面方法过渡的阶段。从理论上讲，自1993年起，灾害管理系统已将减灾、预防和准备阶段全面纳入现有的应对和恢复方法中，特别是针对干旱。这一政策改变了应急响应做法，卫生部门在紧急医疗保健领域采取了一些举措。因此，干旱预警系统、医院的治疗性喂养计划、干旱易发地区的卫生中心和卫生站，以迅速管理急性营养不良病例等都已到位。此外，各级卫生保健系统都对公共卫生疾病突发事件做出了应对。
在基本灾害管理阶段的背景下，针对干旱及其后果（如急性营养不良和流行病）的应急卫生应对措施变得更加全面，干旱和流行病的影响似乎正在下降。然而，剩下的挑战是应对其他灾害（如洪水）带来的灾害，在减灾、预防、准备方面加以应对，并将其纳入卫生保健系统。关键词：灾害、应急卫生、卫生系统、埃塞俄比亚
