By EMS1 Staff
The devastating health effects of earthquakes — along with the challenges responders and federal agencies face in the wake of these natural disasters — are outlined in a new report. By destroying medical facilities, roads, and bridges, earthquakes decrease the capacity for local hospitals to provide urgent surgical and medical care to injured victims, according to the report by Dr. Susan A. Bartles, released Thursday in the Lancet.
Earthquakes have been the cause of more than 780,000 deaths in the past decade, accounting for 60 percent of all disaster-related mortality, the document reports.
In 2004 alone, the tsunami crisis killed more than 200,000 people. Since some of the most populated cities in the world are on fault lines, including Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York, Delhi and Shanghai, millions of people are exposed to the hazards of earthquakes.
After an earthquake, mortality peaks at three points; many victims die immediately. The study outlines how hours later, individuals with serious injuries such as liver or spleen lacerations, pelvic fractures, and subdural hematomas pass away. Then, a third peak occurs after days or weeks following the quake, when people with sepsis (bacteria in the bloodstream) or multiorgan failure die.
In general, children and elderly people are at a higher risk of injury or death during earthquakes.
People with chronic illnesses are at an increased risk of death because access to medicine is cut off due to an interruption to the medical supply chain, the study says.
The most common earthquake-related musculoskeletal injuries are lacerations (65 percent), fractures (22 percent), and soft-tissue contusions or sprains (6 percent).
Between 2 percent and 15 percent of the population may suffer from crush injuries that can lead to sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation (blood clots), adult respiratory distress syndrome, and death. The most effective treatment for crush victims in a natural disaster situation where medical facilities and supplies are limited is inconclusive.
Health emergencies also arise when earthquake victims are displaced from their homes into shelters, increasing the likelihood that infectious diseases will spread.
The study also cites mental health problems, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, as common emotional effects following earthquakes.