Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:32:03.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Post-flood — Infectious Diseases in Mozambique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Hisayoshi Kondo ,
Norimasa Seo ,
Tadashi Yasuda ,
Masahiro Hasizume ,
Yuichi Koido ,
Norifumi Ninomiya  and
Yasuhiro Yamamoto
Hisayoshi Kondo*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School
Norimasa Seo
Affiliation:
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Jichi Medical School
Tadashi Yasuda
Affiliation:
Expert Service Division, Bureau of International Cooperation, International Medical Center of Japan
Masahiro Hasizume
Affiliation:
Department of International Community Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo
Yuichi Koido
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School
Norifumi Ninomiya
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School
Yasuhiro Yamamoto
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School
*
The Research Center for Radiation Emergency Medicine, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4–9–1 Anagawa Inage-ku Chiba-city, Japan, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Introduction:

The types of medical care required during a disaster are determined by variables such as the cycle and nature of the disaster. Following a flood, there exists the potential for transmission of water-borne diseases and for increased levels of endemic illnesses such as vector-borne diseases. Therefore, consideration of the situation of infectious diseases must be addressed when providing relief.

The Japan Disaster Relief ( JDR) Medical Team was sent to Mozambique where a flood disaster occurred during January to March 2000. The team operated in the Hokwe area of the State of Gaza, in the mid-south of Mozambique where damage was the greatest.

Methods:

An epidemiological study was conducted. Information was collected from medical records by abstracting data at local medical facilities, interviewing in habitants and evacuees, and conducting analyses of water.

Results:

A total of 2,611 patients received medical care during the nine days. Infectious diseases were detected in 85% of all of patients, predominantly malaria, respiratory infectious diseases, and diarrhea. There was no outbreak of cholera or dysentery. Self-reports of the level of health decreased among the flood victims after the event. The incidence of malaria increased by four to five times over non-disaster periods, and the quality of drinking water deteriorated after the event.

Conclusions:

Both the number of patients and the incidence of endemic infectious diseases, such as malaria and diarrhea, increased following the flood. Also, there was a heightening of risk factors for infectious diseases such as an increase in population, deterioration of physical strength due to the shortage of food and the temporary living conditions for safety purposes, and turbid degeneration of drinking water. These findings support the hypotheses that there exists the potential for the increased transmission of water borne diseases and that there occurs increased levels of endemic illnesses during the post-flood period.

Keywords

diarrheaepidemicsfloodinfectious diseaseinternational disaster reliefmalariamedical needsMozambique
Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2002 , pp. 126 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Yamamoto, Y: Disaster medicine and its clinical practice. Journal of Japanese Association for Acute Medicine 1995; 6: 295–308.Google Scholar
2.Noji, EK: Flood. Noji EK (ed). The Public Health Consequences of Disaster Oxford University Press, New York, 1997, pp 287–301.Google Scholar
3.Parra, ME, Evans, CB, Taylor, DW: Identification of plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 in the plasma of humans with malaria. J Clin Microbiol 1991; 8: 1629–1634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Medicins Sans Frontieres: Malaria control. In: Medicins Sans Frontieres. Refugee Health Macmillan Education Ltd: London and Oxford, 1997, pp182–190.Google Scholar
5.Kano, Shugeyuki, El Safi, Salah H., Suzuki, Mamoru: Antibody frequency distribution curve for risk assessment of a malaria epidemic in the Sudan. Japanese Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1993;21(4):207–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Maheswary, NP, Habib, MA, Elias, M: Incrimination of anopheles aconitus donitz as a vector of epidemic malaria in Bangladesh. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 1992;23(4):798–801.Google ScholarPubMed
7.Saenz, R, Bissell, RA, Paniagua, F: Post-disaster malaria in Costa Rica. Prehosp Disast Med 1995;10(3):154–160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.Campanella, N: Infectious diseases and natural disasters: The effects of Hurricane Mitch over Villanueva municipal area, Nicaragua. Public Health Rev 1999;27(4):311–319.Google ScholarPubMed
9.Tanabe, Kiyokatsu, Nakamura, Satoshi, Kunii, Osamu: Bacteriological survey of diarrheal epidemics in the 1998 Bangladesh floods. J Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases 1999;73(9):918–922.Google ScholarPubMed
10.Siddique, AK, Baqui, AH, Zaman, K: 1988 Floods in Bangladesh: Pattern of illness and cause of death. J Diarrhoeal Dis Res 1991; 9(4):310–314.Google Scholar
11.Siddique, AK, Zaman, K, Sack, RB: Cholera epidemics in Bangladesh: 1985–1991. J Diarrhoeal Dis Res 1992;10(2):79–86.Google ScholarPubMed
12.Siddique, AK, Islam, Q, Eusof, A: Cholera epidemic and natural disasters; Where is the link. Trop Geogr Med 1989; 41: 377–382.Google ScholarPubMed