Global Health Update: NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

** NEPAL EARTHQUAKE
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Post-Quake Threats to Health
Saturday's devastating earthquake killed more than 4,000 people and injured thousands, and the death toll could rise to 10,000, The Guardian reports (http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/apr/28/nepal-earthquake-death-toll-climbs-past-4000-with-many-more-missing-rolling-report) .

With survivors facing a host of health threats, NBC reports (http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/nepal-earthquake/orgs-nepal-work-prevent-public-health-crisis-n348811) that Nepalese officials are calling for foreign aid, including supplies and medical teams—doctors, nerve specialists, surgeons and paramedics—along with search and rescue equipment.

Major concerns at this point include the spread of diseases like cholera and dysentery from poor sanitation. WHO is sending medical supplies and health workers into the affected region, deploying more emergency health kits with essential medicines and instruments to cover the needs of 80,000 people for 3 months, in coordination with Nepal’s Health Ministry.

UNICEF reports that as many as 1.5 million people affected by the earthquake are sleeping outside, according to LiveScience (http://www.livescience.com/50637-nepal-earthquake-health-concers.html) , which can fuel the spread of diseases, like diarrhea, respiratory diseases, and measles. Another challenge is helping people reliant on medical care like dialysis or daily medications.

Relief teams are working to set up a sanitation system to provide clean water, and UNICEF is working to provide oral rehydration salts, and looking into vaccination needs.

Related: 8 million people may be affected by Nepal earthquake, says U.N. – Thomson Reuters (http://www.trust.org/item/20150427212121-fxwl9/?source=jtOtherNews2)


** SURGERY
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Assessing Nepal’s Needs
Even before Saturday’s earthquake, Nepal had significant unmet needs for surgery and access to care. In 2014, 10% of the population required surgery and 23% of deaths were potentially avoidable with proper access to surgical care, according to a new study in the British Journal of Surgery.

Nearly 2,700 individuals were surveyed with the Surgeons OverSeas Assessment of Surgical need (SOSAS) tool, along with a physical examination, in the study led by surgeon Shailvi Gupta, from the University of California San Francisco East Bay.

With the reasonable size of the physician workforce in Nepal, unmet surgical need may be a problem of distribution of resources. The inability to access care reflected a lack of personnel, facilities or equipment and money, the authors write, as well as fear or lack of trust in Nepal’s health system.
British Journal of Surgery (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bjs.9807/full)