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Fulltext Pengawalan mutu air minuman dan sanitasi semasa banjir 2006-2007 di Johor Darul Ta’zim

Md Rajuna, A.S., Norazema, S.

Malaysian Journal of Community Health, 2009;15(3):41-54.
MyJurnal

Background : Safe potable water is critical during and post flood. In the pre-flood period, Johore has an excellent, systematic and comprehensive water supply system. More than 98.6% of Johore population received treated water supply from the water treatment plants.
Methodology : Data collection was performed by conducting additional water sampling at routine sampling stations as well as the flood relief centres, water tankers (lorries) and static water tanks. Water treatment plant outlet and water tanker inlet shall have a minimum level of 2.0 mg/l of residual chlorine so that reticulation, water tanker outlets and static water tanks would have at least 0.5 mg/l as a measure to prevent the incidence of water borne diseases. Sampling was done everyday to monitor water quality at the flood relief centres as well as flood-hit areas. Inspections and surveillance on sanitation were also conducted on latrines, solid waste disposal systems and on the surrounding environment.
Results : A total of 6,283 water samples had been collected during and post flood. Violations on E. coli, turbidity and residual chlorine were 0.8%, 0.6% and 4.0% respectively with the Kluang district recorded the highest percentages for all the three parameters. A number of 621 wells had been inspected with 378 of them (60.9%) had been chlorinated. In order to ensure environmental cleanliness, 26,815 houses in 708 villages had been visited. Out of them, 2,011 houses (7.5%) were not satisfactory. Sanitation inspections found that 1,778 latrines, 2,719 domestic water sewerage systems and 2,955 solid waste disposal systems were under substandard conditions thus remedial actions had been taken immediately.
Conclusion : Although the flood disaster was massive with prolonged flooding period, however, an overall quality status on treated water supply was satisfactory whilst sanitary hygiene was under control. Hence, the incidence of communicable disease especially water borne diseases would not progress into serious outbreak, in fact, neither cholera nor typhoid was reported during the Johore flood disaster.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Food safety issues in recent Flood 2006-2007 in Johore

Daud, A.R., Thayalan, R., Farhatun Najmi, M.G.

Malaysian Journal of Community Health, 2009;15(3):55-59.
MyJurnal

Background and Objective : Johor was affected by the worst flood in 100 years in December 2006 and again in January 2007. The concern that improper sanitary facilities and contaminated water supply at relief centres would result in contaminated food made monitoring of food hygiene vital. The objective of this paper is to describe food hygiene surveillance activities carried out in flood relief centres and flood affected areas and the challenges faced in carrying out these activities.
Methodology : The food hygiene surveillance activities were carried out by the Assistant Environmental Health Officers (AEHO) in the districts. Among the surveillance activities carried out are inspection of food preparation areas in relief centres, inspection of food premises in flood affected areas and food sampling. Premise inspections were carried out using a specific inspection format. Food samples taken were sent to Public Health Laboratory, Johor Bahru for microbiological analysis. Anti typhoid vaccination for food handlers were also carried out. Apart from that, observations made by the health teams were alsotaken into account.
Results : A total of 3,159 food preparation areas in relief centres were inspected. During the same period, a total of 2,317 food premises in flood affected areas were inspected as soon these premises started operating after the floods. Inspections showed that 69 food preparation areas in relief centres and 181 food premises in flood affected areas had unsatisfactory hygiene. A total of 1,566 holding samples were taken and 425 samples were sent to the laboratory for analysis. Forty-six of the samples analysed were found to be positive for pathogenic bacteria such as e. coli, staphylococcus aureus and salmonella.
Conclusion : The health personnel from the Johor Health Department in various districts carried out an excellent job in ensuring food safety during the floods. There were no outbreaks of food poisoning. However analysis of food samples taken during the floods did show the presence of pathogenic organisms but probably their numbers were not high enough to cause any food poisoning. The promotion and enforcement of food hygiene requirements should be carried out continuously to ensure that every individual understands the need for hygiene and food safety during disaster situation such as flood.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Unheard voices : womens’ inner experiences during the Johore flood

Zabedah, B., Badrul Hisham, A.S.

Malaysian Journal of Community Health, 2009;15(3):98-103.
MyJurnal

Introduction : Human displacement during disaster would cause women and their dependent children to be particularly vulnerable. Yet, women failed to make their voices heard. Thus their needs, priorities and perceptions would not be identified which in turn could hinder an effective emergency response and a full recovery process.
Objective : This paper provides a general overview of problems and issues experienced by women and their dependent children during the Johore flood disaster. With this information, relevant agencies shall focus, among other considerations, on the special needs of women and children in planning and carrying out emergency responses in the future.
Methodology : This paper was written based on data and information obtained from the Johore Flood Disaster Report and observations made by the health teams on the flood victims throughout the flood period.
Findings and Discussions : Pregnant mothers with 36 weeks of gestation or more were evacuated from their homes to the health centres or hospitals when the Johore flood disaster struck. Regular maternal and child health (MCH) services were conducted at the flood relief centres. Despite the efforts by health care providers, we observed women facing some unique issues and problems. These include: 1) Effects of loss of security and protection; 2) Disruption of social relations and privacy; 3) Inadequate supply of basic items and; and 4) Economic disruption. Recommendations for future relief work are: i) Predisaster planning for emergency response must engage and involve women representatives. Women must also be recruited as emergency and relief workers; ii) Assessment of predetermined capacity of identified relief centres with gender consideration for evacuees must be done; iii) All relief centres shall have physical partition between families. Breast feeding room with access to clean water should also be provided; iv) Gender, cultural and religious sensitivity with regards to social protection and relations shall be observed at all times; v) Women should engage and be made occupied with suitable activities to encourage healthy social interaction thus avoiding feelings of boredom and helplessness; vi) Basic personal items for women and adolescent girls, such as sanitary towel and undergarments, and places to wash and hang them in privacy must be provided; vii) Elderly women may have to temporarily stay at unaffected relatives’ or old folk homes throughout the disaster period, and; viii) No smoking policy shall be enforced at all times in flood relief centres.
Conclusion : Women and their dependent children have been recognised as one of the vulnerable groups during disasters. Thus, women shall be empowered as partners in formulating any emergency response plan so that together they would be able to complement all disaster mitigation, relief and recovery efforts in amore effective manner.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Dengue control during flood disaster in Johore,Malaysia

Shaharom, N.A., Nyamah, M.A., Norashikin, M., Zaharah, M.S., Zuhaida, A.J., Norb, H., et al.

Malaysian Journal of Community Health, 2009;15(3):104-110.
MyJurnal

The state of Johore suffered a massive flood disaster from 19th December 2006 to 1st January and from 12th January to 19th February 2007. The possible upsurge of dengue was of foremost concern and led to efforts in increasing control activities. Anyone with history of high fever with at least two symptoms of severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscles and joint paint, rashes and petechiae were notified as dengue. Active and passive case finding was initiated at all 371 evacuation centres as well through health facilities and hospitals through an active surveillance system. Presumptive larval survey was also carried together with control activities by 46 health teams. Data were collected using the format ‘Aktiviti harian kawalan denggi di kawasan pos banjir- Lampiran E‘ and ‘Laporan aktiviti harian kawalan denggi di pusat pemindahan banjir – Lampiran D2’. Dengue serology and blood film for malaria was sent for as well as vector species identification. A total of 594 dengue cases were reported for the period of 19th December 2006 till 19th February 2007, which was an increase in comparison to the 5-year median but less than that reported in year 2006. However only 14 (2.3%) cases were from flood affected areas. During the flood phase, a total of 5,929 inspections were carried out at the evacuation centres with Aedes Index (AI) of 1.86%, while the post flood period showed a lower index. However Breteau Index (BI) and Container Index (CI) were higher. Preventive fogging were carried out at the evacuation centres using adulticides, thermal fogging was carried out at 21,959 premises (40.04% of inspected premises) and 350.6 L adulticides (malathion, fenitrothion and permethrin) were used. Dengue was expected to increase during flood as a result of increase Aedes potential breeding sites. However with intensive and integrated control activities, Johore was able to minimize the impact of flood for vector-borne diseases as seen from the low cases reported in flood related areas. A special guidelines for surveillance and control was developed during this flood as a reference for future occurrences.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Patterns of health ailments and other health problems among children at a relief camp, Aceh, Indonesia; a two months post tsunami study

Adlina, S., Soe, Soe Aye, Narimah, A.H.H., Nuraliza, A.S.

Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 2005;5(1):31-37.
MyJurnal

On December 26, 2004, an earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami that caused death and destruction in twelve countries including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Seychelles, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. One of the authors was a volunteer with FELDA WAJA AMAN MALAYSIA medical relief team that served the Aceh victims from 16th February to 24th February 2005 (8 weeks post tsunami). A study to determine the pattern of health ailments was conducted among children aged 18 years and below based at Seuneubok Camp, 30 km from Banda Aceh. All respondents were from Pulau Aceh and the total number of children seen and examined was 60. About 18% had lost their fathers, 10 % had lost their mothers and 27% had lost one or more of their siblings. 77% suffered some form of health ailments. The common health ailments were diarrhea (61%), respiratory complaints (59%) and fever (20%). About 38 % of preschoolers had loss of appetite and 28% had sleep disturbances. About 35% of the elementary school children suffered from sleep disturbances, 29% of the young adolescents suffered from headaches and 24% had sleep disturbances. Nearly a quarter (24%) of all the children felt fearful and anxious about the disaster. Nevertheless, 56% of the respondents wanted to return back to Pulau Aceh, although 14 % did not want to go back. Interestingly, 73% of the children voiced their gratitude to God for having been saved from death.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Associations between demographic characteristics and resilience factors: a self-report survey

Salizar Mohamed Ludin

International Journal of Care Scholars, 2018;1(1):22-28.
MyJurnal

Objective: In 2014, Malaysia suffered a severe flood disaster and many people lost their home and belongings. Despite regular flooding in this area, the status of community disaster resilience (CDR) is unknown. This paper thus aims to assess the association between demographic characteristics and community disaster resilience factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was completed using the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM28) questionnaire six months after the flood event occurred. All selected respondents who met the inclusion criteria were recruited, and IBM SPSS software was used to undertake descriptive and inferential analysis.

Results: A total of 386 respondents completed the questionnaires. Respondents were mostly female (57%); married (83.9%); with children under 17 years old (58.8%); from villages or rural area (97.2%); living in basic housing (95.6%); of average income; Muslim (97.5%); educated to primary or secondary level (81.1%); and not involved with any community organizations (95.1%), including volunteering, emergency teams, or military service. The mean age was 49 years, and length of time living in the area ranged from 1 to 85 years. CDR scores ranged between medium (2.34- 3.66) and high (3.67- 5.00). An analysis of the results showed that only gender (p = 0.003) and education (p = 0.001) were significantly related to CDR level. Positive and strong correlations were seen between resilience factors, however, particularly leadership (p = 0.001), collective efficacy (p = 0.001); preparedness (p = 0.001); place attachment (p = 0.001); and social trust (p = 0.001).

Conclusion: The study provides a timely insight into the impact of demographic characteristics and resilience factors in Kelantan, developing the knowledge base needed to create comprehensive, improved community-relevant strategies for the future. This assessment enables top-down initiatives to better understand resilience levels, and this could act as tool to enable the government to prepare communities for future disasters or emergency events.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Influencing factors for household water quality improvement in reducing diarrhoea in resource-limited areas

Zin T, Mudin KD, Myint T, Naing DKS, Sein T, Shamsul BS

WHO South East Asia J Public Health, 2013 Jan-Mar;2(1):6-11.
PMID: 28612817 DOI: 10.4103/2224-3151.115828

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Water and sanitation are major public health issues exacerbated by rapid population growth, limited resources, disasters and environmental depletion. This study was undertaken to study the influencing factors for household water quality improvement for reducing diarrhoea in resource-limited areas.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from articles and reviews from relevant randomized controlled trials, new articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses from PubMed, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WELL Resource Centre For Water, Sanitation And Environmental Health.

DISCUSSION: Water quality on diarrhoea prevention could be affected by contamination during storage, collection and even at point-of-use. Point-of-use water treatment (household-based) is the most cost-effective method for prevention of diarrhoea. Chemical disinfection, filtration, thermal disinfection, solar disinfection and flocculation and disinfection are five most promising household water treatment methodologies for resource-limited areas.

CONCLUSION: Promoting household water treatment is most essential for preventing diarrhoeal disease. In addition, the water should be of acceptable taste, appropriate for emergency and non-emergency use.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Beyond the crisis: building back better mental health care in 10 emergency-affected areas using a longer-term perspective

Epping-Jordan JE, van Ommeren M, Ashour HN, Maramis A, Marini A, Mohanraj A, et al.

Int J Ment Health Syst, 2015;9:15.
PMID: 25904981 DOI: 10.1186/s13033-015-0007-9

BACKGROUND: Major gaps remain - especially in low- and middle-income countries - in the realization of comprehensive, community-based mental health care. One potentially important yet overlooked opportunity for accelerating mental health reform lies within emergency situations, such as armed conflicts or natural disasters. Despite their adverse impacts on affected populations' mental health and well being, emergencies also draw attention and resources to these issues and provide openings for mental health service development.
CASE DESCRIPTION: Cases were considered if they represented a low- or middle-income country or territory affected by an emergency, were initiated between 2000 and 2010, succeeded in making changes to the mental health system, and were able to be documented by an expert involved directly with the case. Based on these criteria, 10 case examples from diverse emergency-affected settings were included: Afghanistan, Burundi, Indonesia (Aceh Province), Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste.
DISCUSSION AND EVALUATION: These cases demonstrate generally that emergency contexts can be tapped to make substantial and sustainable improvements in mental health systems. From these experiences, 10 common lessons learnt were identified on how to make this happen. These lessons include the importance of adopting a longer-term perspective for mental health reform from the outset, and focusing on system-wide reform that addresses both new-onset and pre-existing mental disorders.
CONCLUSIONS: Global progress in mental health care would happen more quickly if, in every crisis, strategic efforts were made to convert short-term interest in mental health problems into momentum for mental health reform.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Disaster hypertension and cardiovascular events in disaster and COVID-19 pandemic

Narita K, Hoshide S, Tsoi K, Siddique S, Shin J, Chia YC, et al.

J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich), 2021 03;23(3):575-583.
PMID: 33527663 DOI: 10.1111/jch.14192

The incidence of large disasters has been increasing worldwide. This has led to a growing interest in disaster medicine. In this review, we report current evidence related to disasters and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, such as cardiovascular diseases during disasters, management of disaster hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases associated with COVID-19. This review summarizes the time course and mechanisms of disaster-related diseases. It also discusses the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a cardiovascular risk management strategy to prevent cardiovascular events. During the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, we used the "Disaster Cardiovascular Prevention" system that was employed for blood pressure (BP) monitoring and risk management using ICT. We introduced an ICT-based BP monitoring device at evacuation centers and shared patients' BP values in the database to support BP management by remote monitoring, which led to improved BP control. Effective use of telemedicine using ICT is important for risk management of cardiovascular diseases during disasters and pandemics in the future.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Effect of having a subsequent child on the mental health of women who lost a child in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake: a cross-sectional study

Xu Y, Herrman H, Bentley R, Tsutsumi A, Fisher J

Bull World Health Organ, 2014 May 01;92(5):348-55.
PMID: 24839324 DOI: 10.2471/BLT.13.124677

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether having a subsequent child had an effect on the mental health of Chinese mothers who lost a child during an earthquake.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of bereaved mothers was conducted 30 to 34 months after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake using individual structured interviews to assess sociodemographic characteristics, post-disaster experiences and mental health. The interviews incorporated standardized psychometric measures of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief (CG). Social support was also assessed. An adjusted model taking potential confounders into account was used to explore any association between psychological symptoms and the birth of a subsequent child.
FINDINGS: The prevalence of psychological symptoms was higher in mothers who did not have a child after losing the first one. In an adjusted model, symptoms of anxiety (odds ratio, OR: 3.37; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.51-7.50), depression (OR: 9.47; 95% CI: 2.58-34.80), PTSD (OR: 5.11; 95% CI: 2.31-11.34) and CG (OR: 10.73; 95% CI: 1.88-61.39) were significantly higher among the 116 women without a subsequent child than among the 110 mothers who had another child after bereavement. More than two thirds of the mothers with new infants had clinically important psychological symptoms.
CONCLUSION: Women who have lost an only child in a natural disaster are especially vulnerable to long-term psychological problems, especially if they have reached an age when conception is difficult. Research should focus on developing and evaluating interventions designed to provide women with psychosocial support and reproductive services.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Fulltext Infant feeding concerns in times of natural disaster: lessons learned from the 2014 flood in Kelantan, Malaysia

Sulaiman Z, Mohamad N, Ismail TA, Johari N, Hussain NH

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr, 2016;25(3):625-30.
PMID: 27440698 DOI: 10.6133/apjcn.092015.08

The flood that hit Kelantan in December 2014 was the worst in Malaysian history. Women and their infants accounted for a large proportion of the people at risk who were badly affected, as almost half of the population in Kelantan was in the reproductive age group. This report serves to raise awareness that breastfeeding mothers and infants are a special population with unique needs during a disaster. Four of their concerns were identified during this massive flood: first, the negative impact of flood on infant nutritional status and their health; second, open space and lack of privacy for the mothers to breastfeed their babies comfortably at temporary shelters for flood victims; third, uncontrolled donations of infant formula, teats, and feeding bottles that are often received from many sources to promote formula feeding; and lastly, misconceptions related to breastfeeding production and quality that may be affected by the disaster. The susceptibility of women and their infant in a natural disaster enhances the benefits of promoting the breastfeeding rights of women. Women have the right to be supported which enables them to breastfeed. These can be achieved through monitoring the distribution of formula feeding, providing water, electricity and medical care for breastfeeding mothers and their infants. A multifaceted rescue mission team involving various agencies comprising of local government, including the health and nutrition departments, private or non-governmental organizations and individual volunteers have the potential to improve a satisfactory condition of women and infants affected by floods and other potential natural disasters.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Teaching engineering ethics using BLOCKS game

Lau SW, Tan TP, Goh SM

Sci Eng Ethics, 2013 Sep;19(3):1357-73.
PMID: 23065541 DOI: 10.1007/s11948-012-9406-3

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of a newly developed design game called BLOCKS to stimulate awareness of ethical responsibilities amongst engineering students. The design game was played by seventeen teams of chemical engineering students, with each team having to arrange pieces of colored paper to produce two letters each. Before the end of the game, additional constraints were introduced to the teams such that they faced similar ambiguity in the technical facts that the engineers involved in the Challenger disaster had faced prior to the space shuttle launch. At this stage, the teams had to decide whether to continue with their original design or to develop alternative solutions. After the teams had made their decisions, a video of the Challenger explosion was shown followed by a post-game discussion. The students' opinion on five Statements on ethics was tracked via a Five-Item Likert survey which was administered three times, before and after the ethical scenario was introduced, and after the video and post-game discussion. The results from this study indicated that the combination of the game and the real-life incident from the video had generally strengthened the students' opinions of the Statements.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Post tsunami psychological impact among survivors in Aceh and West Sumatra, Indonesia

Musa R, Draman S, Jeffrey S, Jeffrey I, Abdullah N, Halim NA, et al.

Compr Psychiatry, 2014 Jan;55 Suppl 1:S13-6.
PMID: 23318005 DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2012.12.002

In 2004, the province of Aceh, Indonesia was rocked by tsunami and in September 2009, West Sumatra, Indonesia was hit by an earthquake. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term psychological impact on the residents inhabiting these regions and to identify factors associated with it.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
Meeting the challenge of epidemic infectious disease outbreaks: an agenda for research

Phua KL, Lee LK

J Public Health Policy, 2005 Apr;26(1):122-32.
PMID: 15906881

Challenges arising from epidemic infectious disease outbreaks can be more effectively met if traditional public health is enhanced by sociology. The focus is normally on biomedical aspects, the surveillance and sentinel systems for infectious diseases, and what needs to be done to bring outbreaks under control quickly. Social factors associated with infectious disease outbreaks are often neglected and the aftermath is ignored. These factors can affect outbreak severity, its rate and extent of spread, influencing the welfare of victims, their families, and their communities. We propose an agenda for research to meet the challenges of infectious disease outbreaks. What social factors led to the outbreak? What social factors affected its severity and rate and extent of spread? How did individuals, social groups, and the state react to it? What are the short- and long-term effects on individuals, social groups, and the larger society? What programs can be put in place to help victims, their families, and affected communities to cope with the consequences--impaired mental and physical health, economic losses, and disrupted communities? Although current research on infectious disease outbreaks pays attention to social factors related to causation, severity, rate and extent of spread, those dealing with the "social chaos" arising from outbreaks are usually neglected. Inclusion, by combining traditional public health with sociological analysis, will enrich public health theory and understanding of infectious disease outbreaks. Our approach will help develop better programs to combat outbreaks and equally important, to help survivors, their families, and their communities cope better with the aftermath.

Matched MeSH terms: Disasters

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