Natural disasters are public health matters
Karding leaves behind destruction worth millions. (Photo: Inquirer)
Super Typhoon Karding brought torrential rains and winds that destroyed rice fields and put several provinces under states of calamity, leaving behind an aftermath of devastation and destruction. And it happened fast. Over 714,213 people from Northern and Central Luzon were displaced after the storm intensified into a super typhoon within hours of its landfall on September 25.
Across the globe, hurricane Ian has been considered as the worst hurricane to hit Florida since 1935 after displacing at least 40,600 people and killing almost 100. Millions of Americans are now trying to piece their lives back together amid continued power outages.
These natural disasters reveal institutional issues we might be ignoring everyday: a lack of calamity-proof infrastructure, poor disaster risk reduction planning and management, or disparity in access to information. But one thing we sometimes forget to account for is healthcare during disasters.
Disease emergence in crises
Calamities make the impact of disease worse as people lose their homes, hospitals close, and food and water become a fought-over resource. According to the World Health Organization, developing countries often have it worse due to socio-economic factors.
Floods lead to stagnant water which become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. That means water-borne disease.
In Pakistan, malaria and dengue numbers have gone up after the country was rocked with monsoon rains and floods. More than 2,000 hospitals and health centers in the country were damaged or destroyed, and Pakistanis face a rising death toll which has already hit 1,700. Doctors and groups like UNICEF are sounding the alarm on an immediate medical crisis as healthcare struggles to keep up.
A lack of clean water also spells problems for fighting off ailments. Not only does it affect sanitation in hospitals and homes but it also affects nutrition as people are forced to eat and drink what they can to survive.
The countries of Haiti and Malawi are dealing with a resurgence of cholera, a disease directly linked to ingestion of contaminated food and water. Before 2022, Haiti last reported a cholera case in 2019.
“Haiti has detected cholera in our midst. Cholera was brought in by UN soldiers from Nepal a few years ago causing the death of thousands of Haitians. Now it’s back,” wrote writer Monique Clesca on Twitter.
For Filipinos, we're more familiar with leptospirosis, commonly associated with wading through floodwaters. There was a rise in leptospirosis cases from January to August this year, prompting local government units to conduct programs like Marikina’s Rat to Cash, where residents exchange captured rodents for money.
Let’s also not forget that we’re still living in COVID-19 times. As people gather in evacuation centers, it’s more likely that policies like social distancing and vaccination access are limited, making people more susceptible to falling sick in the aftermath.
Mental health an emerging catastrophe
Feeling distress and grief is inevitable during crises, but these feelings can lead to deeper psychological turmoil.
There was a rise in reports of mental health matters among young people throughout COVID-19 as our lives majorly pivoted towards the unprecedented. Doctors Without Borders reported that battling with mental health is a massive concern for displaced Ukrainians. The United States too saw a rise in suicide rates in 2021 after a two-year dip.
Children are also at high risk of mental distress before, during, and after natural disasters. The highly traumatic events and the loss that follows can lead to elevated stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.
Researchers have found that Filipino children also face threats of abuse and violence following catastrophes as their caregivers struggle to make ends meet or face higher levels of depression and stress.
At least 33% of children reported witnessing violence following a disaster, while 30% of children reported being physically hurt by a parent, and 20% said they were being hurt by parents in a forceful manner.
For children, catastrophic events—whether it’s a pandemic that shutters schools and keeps them at home or a typhoon that sends flood waters through their houses and forces them to evacuate—find them at a formative moment that can alter the way they see and interact with the world. And living through it will be a developmental undertaking of its own.
It’s getting hotter (and worse) in here
The biggest crisis of all? Climate change. For one thing, it make calamities more frequent and more unpredictable. Both Super Typhoon Karding and Hurricane Ian intensified quickly, bore down within 24 to 48 hours, and left—but the destruction they wrought will last for months if not years, worsening the impact of disease.
Public health is also at risk as climate change ramps up. Natural disasters are getting stronger and wetter, which cause direct and indirect deaths. Higher incidences of flooding also lead to the spread of waterborne diseases. Hello, leptospirosis!
Food security, economic stability, disease prevention, and nutrition are all threatened by natural disasters like typhoons, floods, and hurricanes. And the most vulnerable groups, including low-income families, children, and the elderly, are put at even greater risks because of the compounding factors from climate change. Not looking good for us all.
