Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-07T22:41:06.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What is a Disaster?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Adriaan J. H. Korver
Adriaan J. H. Korver
Affiliation:
Netherlands Red Cross Society National Headquarters, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the most serious bottle-necks in the discussions concerning the medical disaster relief is the lack of any uniformity of the concept “Disaster.”

In the summary of the International Congress on Disaster Medicine (Mainz 1977) (1) we can read “The definition of a disaster. This question hung over many of the discussions of the Congress. Several speakers drew attention to the fundamental differences between relief services for an air or train crash and those for an earthquake or flood. Armed conflicts can present different problems again which in themselves vary enormously. While numbers of victims were submitted as a basis for one classification, numbers alone are not enough.”

Type
Selected papers from the 4th World Congress on Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Brighton, United Kingdom, June, 1985
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 2 , Issue 1-4: Contributions from the Second International Assembly on Emergency Medical Services-Focus on Disaster, Baltimore, Md., USA, 1986 and 4th World Congress on Emergency and Disaster Medicine Brighton, U.K. June, 1985 , 1986 , pp. 152 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Frey, R, Safar, P (eds). Disaster Medicine vol 1, Berlin, Springer Verlag, 1980.Google Scholar
2.Martin, E, Oktoberfest bombings in Munich, Proceedings Congress on Mass Casualty Treatment, University Hospital Dijkzigt, Rotterdam, 1982.Google Scholar
3.Konzert-Wenzel, J, Bartels, H, Terrorist bomb explosion at 1980 Oktoberfest in Munich, Disaster Medicine 1983; 3: 347–351.Google Scholar
4.Bircher, J.L.Den katastrophenfall vorbereiten undplanen, Notfallmedizin 1983; 9: 1117–1128.Google Scholar
5.Rutherford, W.H. (chairman). Report of the International Working Party on the Definition and Classification of Disasters, 1980.Google Scholar
6.Wet Rampenplannen (Disaster relief law), staatsblad 1981.Google Scholar
7.American Red Cross, Disaster Services Regulations and procedures (ARC 3002/3050.Google Scholar
8.Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz, Leitfaden für Pflegepersonal, medizinisch-technisches und medizinisch-therapeutisches Personal im Katastrophen-und Kriegsfall.Google Scholar
9.Richie, G.N., Atlantis, a disaster simulation exercise for training purposes, Emergency Planning Digest, 1983; 1:1–5.Google Scholar
10.Rebentisch, E, Die Katastrophe-Vorkommen, Arten, Haufigkeit, Folgen in, Peter, K (ed) Katastropen medizin, München, Bergmann Verlag, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar