Post-Nargis medical care: experience of a Korean Disaster Relief Team in Myanmar after the cyclone.
The objective of this study was to assess the epidemiology and clinical data of patients observed by the Korean Disaster Relief Team, during its deployment in Myanmar, from 6 to 12 June 2008. A cross-sectional, medical record-based study in the Korean Disaster Relief Team clinic, established a month after the cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar. Data collected included demographic variables, and whether or not the problem was acute or chronic, and traumatic or medical. We included 2641 patients in the study. Of those, 57.6% presented with an acute condition, and the rest had chronic conditions. Approximately 5% of the patients presented with trauma/injury; and in 29% of the trauma cases, the problem was directly related to the cyclone. The most common diagnostic category was musculoskeletal problems (21.5%), followed by respiratory (15.3%), and digestive (14.6%) abnormalities. A little over 5% of patients had posttraumatic stress disorder, and the odds ratio was 2.62 (95% confidence interval 1.63-4.21) for women to have posttraumatic stress disorder. Most of the patients (97.5%) had minor problems and were sent home. In conclusion, a huge unmet medical need in at-risk populations and a relatively large proportion of chronic medical conditions should be considered in any future planning of a similar type of disaster.
Kim
Hoon
H
Department of Emergency Medicine, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
Han
Seung Baik
SB
Kim
Ji Hye
JH
Kim
Jun Sig
JS
Hong
EunSeog
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D004066:Digestive System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D004189:Disaster Planning; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002052:Myanmar / Q000453:epidemiology; D012066:Relief Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000208:ethnology; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult