Major incidents

A major incident is one that causes casualties on a scale beyond the usual capabilities of the emergency and healthcare services usual ability to manage. Major incident planning and rehearsal is vital to ensuring an appropriate response. Delivery of a major incident response requires command and co-ordination within and between emergency services, hospitals and specialist charitable organizations. Casualty management will require the set up of major incident infrastructure on scene to effectively extricate, triage, treat and transport casualties to appropriate facilities. There is a role for specialist doctors within the pre-hospital phase of managing a major incident, either within the ambulance command structure or operationally. Debrief and reviewing previous major incidents may identify individual, local and systemic factors that could be altered to improve the response to a future incident.     

湖南省洞庭湖水域洪灾区人群潜在寿命、工作、价值损失年数分析

目的 了解洪灾对人群健康和价值的损害程度。方法 应用标化死亡率和潜在寿命损失年数(WYPLL)、潜在工作损失年数(VYPLL)、潜在价值损失年数(VYPLL)对湖南省洞庭湖水域部分洪灾区人群1995—1999年的死亡情况进行分析。结果 灾区与非灾区两人群死因顺位一致，但损伤、中毒和肿瘤死因的死亡专率，灾区显著高于非灾区。在死因构成中损伤、中毒死亡居第三位，肿瘤居第四位；但在YPLL、WYPLL分析中则跃居第一位和第二位。两人群各年龄段的YPLL、WYPLL、VYPLL分析显示灾区人群40—59岁的各种死亡损失均高于非灾区。结论 降低洪灾区人群损伤、中毒和肿瘤死亡率和重视40—59岁年龄段人群劳动力的保护有重要的社会和经济意义。     

An Empirical Evaluation of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) with Survivors of a Natural Disaster

Controlled studies of treatments effective with victims of natural disasters are almost nonexistent. This is a small study conducted under difficult conditions to test the effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in treating trauma related reactions following Hurricane Andrew. The results were positive in that EMDR produced significant improvement over wail list controls in perceived posttraumatic avoidance behaviors and thoughts as measured by changes in the Impact of Event Scale and significant improvement in subjective aversive reactions to representative experiences of the hurricane. These results suggest and support other studies that EMDR can be an effective therapeutic intervention for trauma reactions.     

阿尔及利亚地震灾后中国危重伤员远程空中转运

目的 总结紧急远程航空医疗运送的经验，分析影响空运的多种因素。方法 通过2003年5月阿尔及利亚地震灾后，中方5名危重伤员的航空转运的实践，就转运计划、医务人员和医疗设备的配置、空中监护、心理干预等对远程航空医疗运送的作用和影响进行分析和总结。结果 5名危重伤员均安全转运至目的地。结论 制订周密的转运计划和进行细致的安排是成功转运的重要条件；灾害伤员的心理干预对安全转运有着特殊意义。     

Posttraumatic stress reactions after single and double trauma

This study evaluated the severity and symptom profile of posttraumatic stress reactions of 202 adults exposed in 1988 to political violence in Azerbaijan and/or the earthquake in Armenia. High rates of severe posttraumatic stress reactions were found among the most highly exposed individuals, irrespective of the type of trauma. There was no difference in symptom profile for subjects exposed to earthquake versus violence. These similarities in severity and symptom profile may be attributable to common features of the exposures, which included experiencing life-threat and witnessing injury, mutilation and death. Recent prior exposure to violence contributed to the severity of reaction to the earthquake. The high rates of chronic and severe posttraumatic stress reactions in Armenia constitute a major public mental health problem.     

移动医院的创建及其在国际救援中的应用

2004年底苏门答腊岛近海发生9级地震和人类历史上最严重的海啸,中国参加了国际救援活动.中国国际救援队创建了移动医院,在亚齐省班达亚齐市实施救援.移动医院的编制为26名医务人员,下分指挥组、分类检伤组、现场救治组、外科救治组、内科救治组、医技组、留观后送组.展开后占地约200平方米.开展了巡诊、院内救治、卫生防疫、灾后医院重建,及培训灾区当地医务人员等工作.总结出如下经验:应加强战役后方,应将所有信息数字化,培训复合型人才十分重要.移动医院是救援队实施救援的重要手段和有效方式,尤其在重大灾害中抢救危重伤员时可发挥重要作用.     

Measurement of Perceived Disruption During Rebuilding Following Hurricane Andrew

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a measure of perceived disruption during rebuilding following a disaster. Two eight-item scales, which measured intensity of disruption during the entire repair phase (Intensity-RP) and intensity of disruption during the past month (Intensity-PM) were developed and administered to 135 survivors of Hurricane Andrew. At 9 to 12 months postdisaster, Intensity-RP and Intensity-PM were both significantly associated with scores on the Global Severity Index of the SCL-90-R, and with scores on the Impact of Event-Intrusion Scale; Intensity-PM alone was significantly associated with PTSD scores. Regression analyses indicated that each scale contributed significant unique variance in predicting mental health symptoms, even after controlling for relevant demographic and initial disaster exposure variables.     

Effect of family role on response to disaster

This study hypothesized that family role (marital and parental status) would moderate the effect of disaster exposure on the mental health of victims. The study included St. Louis residents exposed to floods and dioxin, as well as Puerto Rican respondents exposed to floods and mudslides. In St. Louis, worst outcomes were found for single and married parents exposed to disaster, substantially exceeding the symptomatology of all unexposed respondents except non-victim single parents. In Puerto Rico, victims without families had higher levels of alcohol abuse symptoms than did any other subgroup. Perceived emotional support was found to be an important moderator of disaster's effect on psychiatric distress in this site, generally overriding the effect of family role. Single parents in both sites who were exposed to disaster had substantially reduced levels of emotional support available to them, as compared to unexposed single parents, suggesting that single parents are at particularly high risk for losing access to emotional support following a disaster. This study suggests that both single and married parents constitute important high-risk victim groups. The findings also suggest that those perceiving they lack adequate emotional support, regardless of family role, may be in special need of services.