Preventive Medicine in Humanitarian Emergencies

Pediatricians have much to offer their communities in disaster preparedness and response. Knowledge of children’s medical needs and a natural tendency to be advocates for children are pediatricians’ greatest assets. After a disaster, basic pre­ventive medicine and public health is generally a higher priority than providing clinical consultation for individual patients, and this will help increase pediatricians’ ability to effectively respond to a disaster in their community.

Good preventive medicine techniques involve thorough population evaluation and needs assessments, and using these data to guide initial disaster response. Setting up a functional surveillance system will help evaluate the adequacy of disaster response interventions and will alert clinicians and public health officials to emerging threats to community health. Gathering and using data to intervene at the community level will help ensure the best possible outcomes for entire communities when a disaster strikes.