Reducing the health risks of disasters

According to the last UNISDR and CRED report:
Natural disasters affected 61.7 million people and caused 10,733 deaths worldwide in 2018.

Floods continued to affect the largest number of people, 35.4 million people, including 23 million people in Kerala, India. They caused 2,859 deaths including India (504), Japan (220), Nigeria (199), and Korea DPR (151).

9.3 million people were affected by drought worldwide, including Kenya (3 million), Afghanistan (2.2 million), and Central America (2.5 million), including migration hotspots Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Direct impacts of climate change and climate induced disasters on health include death, injury, disease, mental health impacts, and other health issues such as toxic exposure that can be directly linked to a disaster event.

Indirect health impacts of disasters can result from unmet primary healthcare needs after a disaster due to the change in healthcare demands, and reduced capacity of the health system to meet these needs and baseline healthcare needs.

Climate induced disasters and climate change also affect public and primary health services. Thefunctionality of health services was disrupted due to damages of infrastructure and non-structural factors, including equipment and medical supplies, and factors relating to the functioning of vital aspects of the health system, such as losses of medical records, losses or death of general and specialised health personnel, etc.

In this context, it is critical to enhance the involvement of health in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

SPEAKERS