Disaster-Related Injury Management: High Prevalence of Wound Infection After Super Typhoon Haiyan.
BACKGROUND
After Super Typhoon Haiyan, a category 5 tropical cyclone, insufficient resources were available for medical management. Many patients in the Philippines were wounded as a result of the disaster. We examined the prevalence, risk factors, and consequences of disaster-related wounds and wound infection in the post-disaster period.


METHODS
We performed a retrospective review of consecutive patients admitted to a Korean Disaster Relief Team clinic at St. Paul's Hospital, Tacloban City, Republic of Philippines, between December 9 and 13, 2013. Traumatic injury patients were included; patients not exhibiting a wound were excluded.


RESULTS
Of the 160 patients enrolled in the study, 71 (44.4%) had infected wounds. There were no significant differences in the age, sex, past medical history, wound site, wound depth, injury mechanism, or inducer of injury between the uninfected and infected groups. In the univariate analysis, a foreign-body-contaminated wound, a chronic wound, elapsed time from injury to medical contact, an inadequately cared for wound, and need for subsequent wound management were associated with wound infection (P<0.05). The multivariate analysis revealed that foreign body contamination and having an inadequately cared for wound were associated with wound infection (odds ratio [OR]: 10.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.59-28.56; OR: 3.51, 95% CI: 1.07-11.51, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
In the post-disaster situation, many wound infections required definitive care. Wound infection was associated with inadequately cared for wounds and foreign-body-contaminated wounds.
1Department of Emergency Medicine,Wonju College of Medicine,Yonsei University,Republic of Korea.
Yong Won
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0108-8932
YW
Kim
2Department of General Surgery,Wonju College of Medicine,Yonsei University,Republic of Korea.
Seong Yeop
SY
Kim
3Department of Emergency Medicine,Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital,Republic of Korea.
Hoon
H
Kim
4Department of Emergency Medicine,College of Medicine,Hanlim University,Republic of Korea.
Moo Eob
ME
Ahn
1Department of Emergency Medicine,Wonju College of Medicine,Yonsei University,Republic of Korea.
Kang Hyun
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9664-9186
KH
Lee
5Department of Emergency Medicine,College of Medicine,Ulsan University,Republic of Korea.
Eun Seok
ES
Hong
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D055867:Cyclonic Storms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004190:Disasters / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D060731:Emergency Responders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010679:Philippines; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014946:Wound Infection / Q000628:therapy*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000628:therapy
natural disasters; tropical storm; wounds and injuries