Preparedness Policies Research Articles

Seeking an ethical theory for the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak with special reference to Bangladesh's law and policy.

Globally, a traditional management model has generally been used to manage disaster situations, including in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the government mostly uses the preparedness policy for pandemic outbreak case management. With regard to the limitations arising from the pandemic outbreak the current research will investigate the following questions: when facing a devastating situation, what exactly is the nature of the pandemic outbreak management model incorporated at the governmental level? Keeping these questions in mind, the intention of the existing model is to provide smooth and appropriate assistance to recover from a pandemic outbreak, and to implement effective governance of the situation. This research will identify deficiencies in the current epidemic management policy in Bangladesh, and will assist in forming a new model and developing a systematic procedure for managing future pandemic outbreak situations. The main deficiency in Bangladesh's pandemic management is that the policy paper has failed to identify all hazardous events that may occur in a pandemic outbreak. In most cases, it has underestimated the issues of bioethical responsibility toward the different stakeholders affected during the devastating situation of a pandemic outbreak. The policy does not emphasize the bioethical model; therefore, it fails to encourage support for either public protection or an ethically friendly management system. The model proposed in this article demonstrates an appropriate way to reduce or, if possible, avoid potential damages and losses from a pandemic outbreak. The model aims to prioritize the problems that need assistance to recover from the outbreak.

Local adaptation policy responses to extreme weather events.

At a global level, climate change is expected to result in more frequent and higher-intensity weather events, with impacts ranging from inconvenient to catastrophic. The potential for disasters to act as “focusing events” for policy change, including adaptation to climate change risk, is well known. Moreover, local action is an important element of climate change adaptation and related risk management efforts. As such, there is a good reason to expect local communities to mobilize in response to disaster events, both with immediate response and recovery-focused activities, as well as longer-term preparedness and adaptation-focused public policy changes. However, scholars also note that the experience of disaster does not always yield policy change; indeed, disasters can also result in policy inertia and failure, perhaps as often or more often than major policy change. This study poses two key research questions. First, we ask to what degree policy change occurs in communities impacted by an extreme weather event. Second, we seek to understand the conditions that lead to adaptation-oriented policy adoption in response to an extreme weather event. Our results suggest two main recipes for future-oriented policy adoption in the wake of an extreme weather event. For both recipes, a high-impact event is a necessary condition for future-oriented policy adoption. In the first recipe for change, policy adoption occurs in Democratic communities with highly focused media attention. The second, less expected recipe for change involves Republican communities that have experienced other uncommon weather events in the recent past. We use a comparative case approach with 15 cases and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis methods. Our approach adds to the existing literature on policy change and local adaptation by selecting a mid-N range of cases where extreme weather events have the potential to act as focusing events, thereby sidestepping selection on the dependent variable. Our approach also takes advantage of a novel method for measuring attention, the latent Dirichlet allocation approach.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11077-020-09401-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Best practices for after-action review: turning lessons observed into lessons learned for preparedness policy.

All-hazards preparedness and response planning requires ongoing individual, organisational and multi-jurisdictional learning. Disaster after-action reviews are an established emergency management practice to acquire knowledge through a process of analysing what happened and why, to improve the emergency response before the next crisis. After-action reviews help individuals and organisations learn, and are an essential step in the preparedness cycle. Human and animal health authorities have begun to employ after-action reviews for disaster preparedness and response among public health and Veterinary Services. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) encourages Members to establish after-action reviews and share best practice. The adoption of afteraction review is an essential step for all provincial, national and multinational emergency management authorities to mitigate the impact of disasters on human and animal health. Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential pose unique preparedness challenges, requiring high-level policy attention to close long-standing gaps. A review of after-action reports from the 2001 anthrax bioterror attacks and of naturally occurring infectious disease crises, from the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to the 2014 Ebola epidemic, reveal a similar pattern of repeated weakness and failures. These phenomena are described as 'lessons observed but not lessons learned'. Most infectious disease outbreaks with pandemic potential are zoonotic and require a One Health approach to prevent, prepare for and respond to global health security crises. After-action reviews in a One Health security context are essential to improve the pandemic preparedness of public health and Veterinary Services. After-action reviews can also provide the evidence-based 'feedback loop' needed to galvanise public policy and political will to translate lessons observed into sustained and applied lessons learned.

El entramado interorganizacional para la protección civil en Bariloche, Argentina: resiliencia y gestión de riesgo ante fenómenos volcánicos

En este artículo nos preguntamos cómo gestionar mejor las ciudades para garantizar su resiliencia frente a eventos adversos. En particular, analizamos el entramado de relaciones entre organizaciones involucradas en la gestión de crisis derivadas de fenómenos volcánicos (reducción del riesgo, manejo y recuperación). Estudiamos el caso de Bariloche, Argentina, una ciudad con alta vulnerabilidad frente a eventos diversos (naturales, económicos, sanitarios, etcétera) y realizamos un análisis de redes sociales. Encontramos que, en la emergencia volcánica de 2011, generada por la erupción del complejo volcánico Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, las políticas de concientización, prevención y preparación fueron ineficaces, hubo problemas de coordinación y comunicación entre los organismos oficiales, y las estrategias de superación respondieron más a la capacidad individual de adaptación, que a la planificación preexistente. Más recientemente, el gobierno local trabajó en la coordinación de actores sociales e institucionales para afrontar los efectos adversos de los fenómenos naturales y aumentar la resiliencia urbana, bajo una lógica de gobernanza policéntrica y acción interconectada entre organizaciones públicas, privadas y de la sociedad civil.

1918 Influenza Outcomes among Institutionalized Norwegian Populations: Implications for Disability-Inclusive Pandemic Preparedness

People with disabilities are often at increased risk during infectious disease pandemics, due to complex biological and social factors. Synergistic biological interactions can lead to severe complications or reduced vaccine efficacy, while people with disabilities also tend to have lower access to health care, higher rates of poverty, might be institutionalized, and are frequently excluded from preparedness planning and crisis responses. Further, there are limited data from historical epidemics to inform public health efforts that address disability concerns. We provide novel evidence for disability-related disparities in influenza outcomes using data from Norwegian psychiatric hospitals and schools for children with disabilities during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Both students and patients suffered higher mortality compared to staff members. Recognition of differential risk factors for people with disabilities is essential for the development of equitable and effective pandemic preparedness policies.

정부 비상대비정책 우선순위 도출에 관한 연구

정부 비상대비정책 우선순위 도출에 관한 연구

Disaster Preparedness, Vulnerability and Resilience - Review of Theories and Implementations

This review paper aims to suggest policy directions to secure the effective implementation of disaster preparedness policy by minimizing vulnerability for disaster and building disaster resilience in the event of large-scale disasters. Disaster preparedness refers to activities undertaken prior to the onset of a disaster to improve the response capacities of individuals, households, organizations, communities, and countries. The roles of these units include assessing their disaster vulnerabilities, anticipating problems that may arise in the event of disasters, and improving the ability to reduce disaster impact and ensure efficient and effective responses. In this context, we reviewed the theoretical framework underlying disaster preparedness, vulnerability, and resilience in disaster situations and then examined some of the problems that hinder proper preparation for a prompt and efficient response to the disaster. Based on the findings of the review, we recommended the government to develop programs to ensure effective implementation of disaster preparedness policies for vulnerability reduction and resilience building.

Disaster Risk Reduction, modern science and local knowledge: Perspectives from Timor-Leste

Local knowledge and modern science are both valuable inputs to environmental Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) approaches. Local knowledge for DRR is particularly important in countries where government capabilities are limited and where long-standing customary practices of natural resource management still exist and may be harnessed for governance purposes. Modern science can add value by expanding the knowledge base using methods not available to local people through empirical studies and using theory in data-poor locations to fill empirical gaps and test empirically derived inferences. Timor-Leste is an impoverished post-conflict nation prone to disasters from connected threats of droughts, floods and landslides and human dependence on low yield, shifting agriculture. In this paper, the results of community meetings in the catchments of the Laclo and Caraulun rivers are compared with scientific research to identify explanations of hazard cause and effect. The major difference between the two knowledge spheres is that while local people shared causal connections with scientific explanations they also simultaneously held ‘naturalist’ explanations of disasters. In particular, they attributed environmental disasters to the failure to put to rest the spirits of the many people killed during the previous decades of militarised occupation. The paper considers the implications of these findings for developing effective governance and preparedness policies for DRR in Timor Leste and evaluates recent developments.

Disaster experiences and preparedness of the Orang Asli Families in Tasik Chini of Malaysia: A conceptual framework towards building disaster resilient community

This study explores disaster experiences and preparedness of the disaster affected Orang Asli families in Tasik Chini, Malaysia. Applying a qualitative research approach, this study was collected data from 10 respondents from 10 families based on convenient sampling and in-depth interview. This study utilises thematic analysis to analyse and report the data. This study revealed that Orang Asli families faced both positive and negative experiences due to disaster. Moreover, disaster preparedness of the families was found to be low. Thus, there is need an inclusive disaster preparedness policy for the Orang Asli families towards building a disaster resilient community.

Dynamics of Urban Disaster Risk Paradigm: Looking Through the Perceived Lens of the Residents of Informal Settlements in Khulna City, Bangladesh

The integration of sustainability principles into disaster management research suggests a shift from traditional expert-driven assessment to a more community-driven process. However, most studies have focused on a generalized and regional assessment of perceived risk. Only a few of them have focused on informal settlements which belong to the most vulnerable communities facing the compound impacts of multiple disasters in urban areas. This raises concerns over the generalization of existing findings as informal settlements may add to spatial heterogeneity in disaster risk assessment. In order to contribute to this knowledge gap, we have surveyed 1,122 households of 93 slums of Khulna city in Bangladesh. We have investigated informal settlers’ perceptions of local and citywide hazard risks and their vulnerabilities from natural and anthropogenic hazards. It is found that low-income households are more concerned about the day-to-day inconvenience (e.g., waterlogging) rather than extreme weather events (e.g., cyclone and storm surge). This is mainly due to the degraded local environment and poor built form of their living places. The mapping of survey responses displays a spatial segregation of perceived disaster risk. The study highlights the importance of adopting spatial and risk-specific disaster preparedness policies and interventions. The results of the study would also be useful for tailoring appropriate disaster management policies to improve community resilience for poverty-stricken areas in developing countries.

A Comparison of Emergency Preparedness Policies by Long-Term Care Setting Type in Ohio: Assisted Living Settings Lag Behind Nursing Homes in Key Areas.

Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) have received regulatory attention in relation to their emergency preparedness. Yet, assisted living settings (ALs) have not experienced such interest due to their classification as a state-regulated, home- and community-based service. However, the growth in the number of ALs and increased resident acuity levels suggest that existing disaster preparedness policies, and therefore, plans, lag behind those of SNFs. We examined differences in emergency preparedness policies between Ohio's SNFs and ALs. Data were drawn from the 2015 wave of the Ohio Biennial Survey of Long-Term Care Facilities. Across setting types, most aspects of preparedness were similar, such as written plans, specifications for evacuation, emergency drills, communication procedures, and preparations for expected hazards. Despite these similarities, we found SNFs were more prepared than large ALs in some key areas, most notably being more likely to have a backup generator and 7 days of pharmacy stocks and generator fuel.

Factors affecting awareness of preparedness after moderate earthquakes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how experiencing moderate earthquakes influences risk perception and preparedness.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted on a nationally representative sample of Korean adults after the moderate earthquake in Pohang in 2017. Statistical analyses were conducted to identify the determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for seismic retrofitting and earthquake insurance.FindingsThe results show that risk perception, housing ownership, earthquake experience and income level significantly influenced WTP for seismic retrofitting and earthquake insurance. The results also indicate that a greater number of damage-free earthquake experiences reduced the WTP that could be explained by normalcy bias. Finally, people who believed that the Pohang earthquake might be an example of induced seismicity (i.e. triggered by the geothermal power plant) tended to have a lower WTP for seismic retrofitting.Originality/valueThis study offers valuable findings on public attitudes about enhancing earthquake preparedness policies in moderate earthquake zones, regions that few studies have examined despite their high vulnerability due to a lack of preparedness.

Community Perception through Comparative Analysis of Turkey's Disaster Preparedness Policy: The Case of Van-Bitlis Provinces

Bu araştırmada, Türkiye’nin afetlere hazırlık politikalarının toplum algısı üzerinden karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda, yakın tarihte (2011) afetin yaşandığı Van ile yakın tarihte herhangi bir afetin yaşanmadığı Bitlis ilinde bir alan araştırması gerçekleştirilmiştir. Böylelikle afetlere hazırlık politikaları doğrultusunda yapılan uygulamalara yönelik toplum algısının bu iki il arasında herhangi bir farklılık oluşturup oluşturmadığı tespit edilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmanın ana kütlesini her iki ildeki üniversite personeli, örneklemi ise bu iki üniversiteden araştırmaya gönüllü katılım sağlayan personel oluşturmaktadır. Araştırma kapsamında elde edilen veriler, tanımlayıcı istatistiki analizlerin yanı sıra, faktör, korelasyon, T testi ve ANOVA analizlerine tabi tutulmuştur. Yapılan analizler sonucunda, genel olarak ülkemizdeki afetlere hazırlık politikalarının etkin bir düzeyde olmadığı görülmüştür. Ayrıca, afetin yaşanma durumunun bireylerin afet farkındalığı ve bilinç düzeyini etkilemediği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarının paydaşlara afete hazırlık konusunda durum tespiti yapma açısından yardımcı olacağı düşünülmektedir. Bununla birlikte sonuçların politika yapıcılara da yol gösterici bir nitelikte katkı sunması beklenmektedir.

A method for evaluating the cost-benefit of different preparedness planning policies against pandemic influenza

•Our work presents a unifying method to calculate the net-benefit of different preparedness policies against different pandemic influeunza strains. Unlike previous methods, which have focused on evaluating specific strategies against specific pandemics, our method allows assessment of mass immunisation strategies in presence and absence of antiviral drugs for a large range of pandemic influenza strain characteristics and programme features. Overall, the model described here combines two parts to evaluate different preparedness planning policies against pandemic influenza.•The first part is adaptation of an existing transmission model for seasonal influenza to include generalisation across large number of pandemic influenza scenarios.•The second part is development of a tailor-made health economic model devised in collaboration with colleagues at the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Disaster management in rural and remote primary healthcare settings: a scoping review protocol.

This scoping review aims to systematically identify and map the roles of primary healthcare professionals in rural and remote areas during natural, man-made and pandemic disasters. Disasters can be caused by natural events, man-made incidents or infective agents resulting in a pandemic. Healthcare practitioners working in primary care settings have important roles during disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. When rural and remote settings are affected by disasters, there are unique challenges for healthcare professionals. This review will aim to contribute to disaster management knowledge within rural and remote primary health care, and assist in the development of practice-based disaster preparedness and future policy discussion. This review will consider studies that include primary healthcare professionals, defined as having first-level contact with patients in the community, in rural or remote areas only. The role of the healthcare professional will also be discussed within the paper. Research from Australia, Canada, the USA, New Zealand and the UK will be included. Databases to be searched include CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PubMed, Scopus and Embase (Elsevier), as well as gray literature within Trove, MedNar and OpenGrey. The search will be limited to articles written in English and published from 1978 to the present. Titles and abstracts will be screened by two independent reviewers, and full-text studies will be retrieved and assessed against the inclusion criteria. Results will be recorded in a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) diagram. Data will be extracted and presented as a tabular summary with supporting narratives and figures.

Implementation of COVID-19 Preparedness and Prevention Policy at Makassar State University

COVID-19 virus has become an outbreak of a pandemic, almost all countries have issued a policy in breaking the chain of distribution of COVID-19, including the Republic of Indonesia. COVID prevention policy 19 at tertiary institutions has been issued by the Republic of Indonesia's educational and cultural mantras. All tertiary institutions have followed up on the circular including Makassar state university. The policy steps that have been implemented by the Rector of Makassar State University: in the context of preparedness and prevention of COVID-19 by issuing a circular, forming a Covid Task Force Team 19, making posters to educate the academics of Makassar State University have been well implemented

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic lockdown on maternal healthcare services in rural Lucknow: A qualitative analysis

'Unprecedented' is the appropriate succinct description of the times we are living in the year 2020. An unfavoured but a necessary corollary of it is 'uncertainty'.COVID-19 pandemic has not only introduced a massive public health challenge before the world but also distinctly laid open the inefficiencies and frailty of public health systems at the level of preparedness, response, and health policy framework, of even the most developed economies. Low and middle income countries (LMIC) already remain at a greater risk of adverse impact of any public health emergency, leave alone the kind of present pandemic and its magnitude. A unique impact of any public health emergency on LMIC, in particular, is that while handling the emergency, delivery of other essential health services gets negatively affected leaving the vulnerable groups even further marginalised e.g. expectant women. It becomes essential to note that without an effective and robust healthcare system and policy framework, health outcomes would continue to get adversely impacted.

The 4th Industrial Revolution Era and Emergency Preparedness Policy: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analysis, Cloud Computing, Drone Use

The 4th Industrial Revolution Era and Emergency Preparedness Policy: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analysis, Cloud Computing, Drone Use

Vulnerability of Renters and Low-Income Households to Storm Damage: Evidence From Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Objectives. To identify disparities in home damage from Hurricane Maria among Puerto Rican households with different housing tenure and income levels.Methods. Using household inspection data obtained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including an ordinal damage severity measure, we used generalized ordered logistic regression to estimate the relative risks of damage severities between renters and homeowners, and between households with different incomes.Results. With respect to the FEMA damage-severity classifications of "minor," "major," and "destroyed," renters were more at risk than homeowners for both "major-or-destroyed" and "destroyed" outcomes. Similarly, lower-income households were at greater risk for both "major-or-destroyed" and "destroyed" outcomes. When we allowed for an interaction between income and housing tenure, the difference in risk of "destroyed" outcomes between renters and homeowners was substantially greater at lower income levels.Conclusions. These results provide evidence at the individual household level that renters and lower-income households are most vulnerable to hurricane damage. Our interaction results suggest that lower-income renters are particularly vulnerable to severe home damage.Public Health Implications. Disaster preparedness policies should raise structural standards for low-income housing to reduce risks of severe damage.

Differential Mental Health Impact Six Months After Extensive River Flooding in Rural Australia: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Through an Equity Lens.

Background: Northern New South Wales in Australia is a “hotspot” for natural disaster declarations with recent extensive flooding in early 2017. With limited knowledge about how climate change affects mental health and resilience, robust local assessments are required to better understand long-term impact, particularly in communities prone to extreme weather events.Methods: Six months post-flood, a cross-sectional survey of adults living in the region during the flood was conducted to quantify associations between flood impact and psychological morbidity (post-traumatic stress (PTSD), anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation) for different exposure scenarios, and respondent groups. We adopted a community-academic partnership approach and purposive recruitment to increase participation from marginalized groups.Results: Of 2,180 respondents, almost all (91%) were affected by some degree of flood-related exposure at an individual and community level (ranging from suburb damage to home or business inundated). Socio-economically marginalized respondents were more likely to have their homes inundated and to be displaced. Mental health risk was significantly elevated for respondents: whose home/business/farm was inundated [e.g., home inundation: PTSD adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 13.72 (99% CI 4.53–41.56)]; who reported multiple exposures [e.g., three exposures: PTSD AOR 6.43 (99% CI 2.11–19.60)]; and who were still displaced after 6 months [e.g., PTSD AOR 24.43 (99% CI 7.05–84.69)].Conclusion: The 2017 flood had profound impact, particularly for respondents still displaced and for socio-economically marginalized groups. Our community-academic partnership approach builds community cohesion, informs targeted mental health disaster preparedness and response policies for different sectors of the community and longer-term interventions aimed at improving community adaptability to climate change.