As the health cluster lead for global emergencies, WHO works with partners to mitigate, prepare and respond to earthquakes worldwide. This includes:
strengthening health emergency risk management systems
limiting the risk of exposure to earthquakes by improving the quality of the built environment, with better land-use control, including regulating building
ensuring that health facilities are resilient to hazards, and that they are able to remain functional and able to respond to increased and changed health needs after earthquakes, with staff trained appropriately
mobilizing medical response teams, including establishing temporary health structures and field hospitals, as well as emergency medical kits
investing in community preparedness, as local resident are often the first responders
Earthquakes
Earthquakes can strike suddenly and without warning. An earthquake is a violent and abrupt shaking of the ground, caused by movement between tectonic plates along a fault line in the earth’s crust. Earthquakes can result in the ground shaking, soil liquefaction, landslides, fissures, avalanches, fires and tsunamis. The extent of destruction and harm caused by an earthquake depends on:
- magnitude
- intensity and duration
- the local geology
- the time of day that it occurs
- building and industrial plant design and materials
- the risk-management measures put in place.
Between 1998-2017, earthquakes caused nearly 750 000 deaths globally, more than half of all deaths related to natural disasters. More than 125 million people were affected by earthquakes during this time period, meaning they were injured, made homeless, displaced or evacuated during the emergency phase of the disaster.
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