Third world disasters

A questionnaire was sent to the main European nongovernmental agencies who sent health personnel during 1980-81 to third world disasters, those who replied gave information on more than 700 personnel; of these the largest single group sent to work in the field were nurses (see Table 1). Less than 17% were from professional groups such as nutritionists, water and sanitation engineers, dentists, etc.

Table 1
BREAKDOWN OF HEALTH PERSONNEL

This is significant because skills in the provision of water supplies, sanitation, logistics, transportation and nutrition, agriculture and administration were needed as much if not more than basic curative care. In future, therefore, either agencies should send a larger proportion of appropriate people, or doctors and nurses need to be given a wider training to encompass these necessary skills.

Over three-quarters of those sent went to refugee camps or war situations in Africa and the Far East with virtually none going to acute disasters (see Tables 2-3). In the past the relief phase in the latter situation generally is too short for help from outside to arrive in time and in these situations the work therefore was done by local organisations.

Table 2
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF HEALTH WORKERS

Table 3
PERSONNEL SENT TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF DISASTERS