(A237) Management of the Dead during Mass Casualty Disasters in South Asia: Perspectives of the First Decade of the 21st Century

Abstract

The first decade of the 21^st century will go down in history as an era of major disasters. Disasters have occurred in all corners of the world and ranged from events such as the 11 September attack, the London bombings, the Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes in India, Iran, Pakistan, China, and Haiti, and cyclones and floods in Bangladesh and Myanmar. The unavoidable common factor of all these disasters was the massive number of casualties and deceased witnessed within a short period. The effective intervention of governmental agencies to manage casualties during the immediate aftermath of a disaster often is restricted by many technical and circumstantial factors. However, it was observed during the last decade that during disasters, volunteer members of the affected and surrounding communities form a huge supportive force to meet most urgent tasks, including managing the dead. This was best witnessed in 2004, after the Asian tsunami disaster. The management of the dead during disasters is a multidisciplinary, multi-stage task and a medico-legal emergency that should be commenced during the immediate post-disaster period. Community first responders comprise an easily accessible, readily available task force in the field of managing the dead, especially in the recovery and transportation of dead during disasters. The first attempt to regularize the role of community first responders during disasters was made in 2005 with the post-Asian tsunami experience through a joined effort of many international organizations. Since then, south Asian countries have been more concerned about developing capacity of first responders via community-based disaster management schemes. The services of first responders could be greatly enhanced through training and integrating them into mass casualty management plans in less resourced countries as elaborated in this paper.