The influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake on tuberculosis control in Japan.

Akira Shimouchi,Yoko Nagata,Nobutatsu Ishkawa,Minako Urakawa,Noriko Kobayashi

doi:10.5365/wpsar.2015.6.2.009

Abstract

WPSAR Vol 6, No 4, 2015 | doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2015.6.2.009 www.wpro.who.int/wpsar 30 a Nishinari District Public Health Offi ce, Osaka City, Japan. b The Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association, Tokyo, Japan. Submitted: 4 June 2015; Published: 21 December 2015 doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2015.6.2.009 The Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Pacific Ocean side of north-eastern Japan on 11 March 2011,1 resulting in more than 18 000 deaths and missing people in three prefectures: Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.2 Of those deaths, 65% were aged 60 years and older, and more than 90% were caused by drowning.3 The earthquake also destroyed nuclear power plants in Fukushima, causing high levels of radioactive contamination.4 As a result, there were 386 739 evacuees staying in 2182 temporary shelters such as community centres, schools and gymnasiums one week after the disaster.5

Highlights

In Japan, tuberculosis (TB) control activities are conducted by public health centres (PHCs) and treatment support is provided by public health nurses (PHNs)
From April 2011 to March 2014, teams of medical doctors and PHNs of the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association (JATA) visited eight PHCs and three hospitals for TB patient followup in the eight disaster-affected PHC areas where the mortality or missing rate was higher than 0.1%
The consultation meetings revealed that no TB patients had defaulted from treatment in these areas

Summary

Introduction

In Japan, tuberculosis (TB) control activities are conducted by public health centres (PHCs) and treatment support is provided by public health nurses (PHNs). We obtained data on casualties of the disaster from the National Police Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.[2] From April 2011 to March 2014, teams of medical doctors and PHNs of the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association (JATA) visited eight PHCs and three hospitals for TB patient followup in the eight disaster-affected PHC areas where the mortality or missing rate was higher than 0.1%. There were 96 TB patients on treatment in the eight PHC areas at the time of the disaster.

Results

Conclusion