Abstract
In 2013, the Philippines was struck by typhoon Haiyan, which damaged local hospitals and disrupted health care. The Belgian First Aid and Support Team erected a field hospital and water purification unit in Palo. This study aims to describe the diagnoses encountered and treatment provided. In this cross-sectional study, medical records of 1267 field hospital patients were reviewed for gender, age, complaints, diagnoses, and management and referral information. Almost 28% of the patients suffered from injury, but most presented with nonsurgical diseases (64%), particularly of respiratory (31%), dermatological (11%), and digestive (8%) origin. Only 53% presented with disaster-related pathology, and 59% showed signs of infection. Patients needed wound care (47%), pain relief (33%), or antibiotics (29%); 9% needed procedures, 8% needed fluid therapy, and 5% needed psychological support. Children under 5 years of age were more at risk for infections (OR, 18.8; CI, 10.6-33.3) and injuries (OR, 10.3; CI, 6.3-16.8). Males were more prone to injuries than females (OR, 2.1; CI, 1.6-2.6). One week after the acute phase of a typhoon, respiratory, dermatological, and digestive problems emerge to the prejudice of trauma. Only 53% of patients presented with disaster-related conditions. Young children are more at risk for injury and infectious diseases. These trends should be anticipated when composing Emergency Medical Teams and medical resources to be sent to disaster sites. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:265-278).
Highlights
MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, medical records of 1267 field hospital patients were reviewed for gender, age, complaints, diagnoses, and management and referral information
The majority of displaced persons relocated in self-created temporary shelters.[1,2,3]
This study aims to document the demographics, complaints, comorbidities, diagnoses, diagnosis categories, and management of typhoon victims who sought medical assistance in a field hospital of an international emergency medical teams (EMTs) and to formulate recommendations for future relief operations
Summary
In this cross-sectional study, medical records of 1267 field hospital patients were reviewed for gender, age, complaints, diagnoses, and management and referral information. Study Design A retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional sample analysis was performed on prospectively obtained medical records collected by B-FAST from November 16 to November 20, 2013. This time interval corresponds to the period that the Belgian field hospital was present in Palo. Pearson’s chi-square analysis was performed to identify factors associated with the health problems by using “infectious disease,” “injury,” and “infected wounds” as outcome variables and by using age category (
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