Floods

OBJECTIVETo establish a public health risk assessment indexes for flood disaster.

METHODSDelphi method and expert consultation were used to establish the public health risk assessment index system and scoring criteria, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to obtain the weight of the indexes. Then, the established index system was applied to evaluate the public health risk of the flood disaster in Anhui province, 2016.

RESULTSA public health risk assessment system consisting of 5 categories and 17 indexes was constructed. The assessment result of the flood disaster in Anhui province of 2016 showed that the public health risk score was 0.26, suggesting that "the health emergency measures were effective, and the public health risks were effectively controlled".

CONCLUSIONSThe established indexes can effectively assess the health risk of flood disaster and also can provide the reference for other disaster assessment.

Disasters ; Floods ; Risk Assessment

Humans ; Floods ; Paraffin ; Paraffin Embedding

Pakistan is ranked 9th in terms of flood-affected countries worldwide. In the summer of 2010, the northern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa received more than 312 mm of rain in a 56 hour period. This resulted in over 1 600 deaths across the region. In addition, over 14 million people were directly affected by this record-breaking deluge. Flood affected regions serve as ideal breeding grounds for pathogens, leading to the spread of diseases. The poor standards of hygiene in camps set up for individuals displaced by the floods also contribute to this. It is essential that those involved in relief efforts are aware of the epidemiology of diseases that have historically seen a sudden upsurge after natural disasters. Keeping this in mind, we conducted a simple review of literature. An extensive literature search was conducted using the PubMed data base and online search engines. Articles published in the last 20 years were considered along with some historical articles where a background was required. Seven major diseases were identified to increase substantially in the aftermath of natural disasters. They were then classified into acute and sub-acute settings. Diarrhea, skin & eye infections and leptospirosis were identified in the acute setting while malaria, leishmaniasis, respiratory infections and hepatitis were identified in the sub-acute setting.
Communicable Diseases ; epidemiology ; Floods ; Humans ; Pakistan ; epidemiology

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the vulnerability to floods in Guangdong province at district level.

METHODSData were collected from the sixth census, the 2010 Statistical Yearbook of Guangdong, the 2010 Health Statistics Yearbook of Guangdong and China Disease Prevention and Control information systems, etc. The weight of each indicator was determined based on subjective method and objective method respectively; and finally the results of the two methods were compared.

RESULTS13 indicators were selected for the assessment of vulnerability to floods, including 6 sensitivity indicators, 5 adaptability indicators and 2 exposure indicators. Indicators with large weight (subjective weight/objective weight) were the proportion of population older than 65 years old (0.31/0.30), the proportion of population older than 65 years old (0.16/0.23), infant mortality rate (0.18/0.20), the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (0.33/0.21), the proportion of illiterate in the population older than 15 years old (0.19/0.28), history frequency of floods (0.75/0.75). The mean vulnerability index (VI) calculated by subjective method was 0.35 with the standard deviation of 0.10; the mean vulnerability index calculated by objective method was 0.31 with the standard deviation of 0.08. The two weighting methods showed consistent results of vulnerability index (ICC = 0.975, P < 0.01). VI of most districts dropped in the interval of 0.30 - 0.39. Districts with subjective VI > 0.50 or objective VI > 0.40 should pay more attention to floods, including parts of the coastal areas, Beijiang River Basin, the eastern tributary area of Dongjiang River and the northern part of Pearl River Delta. Dapu district of Meizhou (0.55/0.45), Dianbai district and Maogang district of Maoming (0.54/0.48) were most vulnerable. Districts of Heyuan, Dongguan, Zhaoqing and Huizhou were less vulnerable, Yuancheng district of Heyuan showed least vulnerable to floods (0.15/0.12) followed by Dongguan (0.18/0.16), Duanzhou district (0.18/0.16) and Guangning (0.17/0.15) district of Zhaoqing. The score of indicators differed among different level of vulnerability (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONDifferent regions of Guangdong province showed different vulnerability to floods, vulnerable areas should be priority in the prevention and control of floods.

China ; Climate ; Demography ; Disasters ; Floods ; Humans ; Risk Assessment ; Rivers

This study was carried out to examine Koreans preference in mushrooms, their nutritional knowledge of mushrooms as a source of Vitamin D, and five characteristics of six dishes consisting of common dishes and mushroom dishes. The data were collected from 2,777 subjects in various age ranges by means of a survey questionnaire. Variables, such as age, gender, diet quality and the degree of interest in diet were significant factors considered in relation to preference of mushrooms. Adults ate mushrooms because of their healthfulness, but this attibute was not a factor among adolescent students. The level of nutritional knowledge was relatively low and the ratio of "do not know" responses was higher than the ratio of "yes" or "no" . Generally, housewives, elementary school children and those who were healthy, ate floods because of health consciousness, and those who preferred mushrooms had better dietary habits. The characteristics of mushroom dishes, both as main and side dishes, had much more correlation with the factors considered for the subjects than the common dishes and one dish meals, respectively. Dietary altitudes, such as mushroom preference, frequency of mushroom intake and level of nutritional knowledge, were strongly correlated with the characteristics of the six dishes. It has been shown that mushroom dishes were recognized as nutritional, rather than delicious.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Agaricales* ; Altitude ; Child ; Consciousness ; Diet ; Floods ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Meals ; Vitamin D ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The fifteen persons from In-jae, Kang-won do, were missing by floods on July 2006. In relation to the this case, the two unidentified corpses were found nearby So-yang lake on June and September 2007, respectively. In these cases, autosome short tandem repeats (STR) and Y-STR were used for identification. The AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit (amelogenin and 15 STRs) and the AmpFlSTR Yfiler kit (16 Y-STRs) are analysed by multiplex-PCR and automated fluorescent detection using Perkin Elmer Prism 310 DNA sequencer. Finally we could found identify the two missing persons.
Cadaver ; DNA ; Floods* ; Forensic Anthropology ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Lakes ; Microsatellite Repeats

The effects of disasters have recently become an important worldwide health issue. In Korea, there have been many disaster events since 2000. Recently, there was a consensus to develop a scientific research framework for disaster. According to this consensus, disaster is defined as an event associated with more than 10 deaths or more than 50 injured individuals. Besides the mortality rate of the event, the early or late mortality rate can also be used to analyze the effect of disasters. According to international and domestic databases, technical disasters have increased and become potentially deadly. Common natural causes of disaster are storms and floods and common human-made causes are fire and transportation accidents. Most disaster studies are retrospective and observational. The mortality rate of disasters ranges from 0% to 77.7%. To analyze the effect of disaster on health and to establish appropriate health policies, epidemiological research into disaster is essential.
Consensus ; Disaster Medicine ; Disaster Victims ; Disasters* ; Epidemiology* ; Fires ; Floods ; Health Policy ; Korea ; Mortality ; Retrospective Studies ; Transportation

OBJECTIVETo investigate the changes of water level and the distribution of snails in Anhui province before and after runs of the Three Gorges Reservoir Project, and to determine the relationship between the two factors and schistosomiasis transmission.

METHODSThe hydrologic data of Datong hydrologic station and the data of snail status and schistosomiasis morbidity in Anhui Province were collected. The data from 1991 to 2002 and 2003 to 2012 were considered as before and after the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Project. Based on the prevalence of schistosomiasis, the cases of people and cattle were speculated, and the average infection rate of people and cattle were calculated. The t-test was used to compare the difference of snail area and the density of living snails before and after the impoundment of the Three Gorges Project. The pearson method was used to analyze the relationship between water level and snail area. The spearman method was used to analyze the relationship between the water level and the distribution of snails.

RESULTSFrom 1991 to 2012, the range of the highest water level, the lowest water level, the difference between the highest and lowest water level, the mean in the abundant water seasons, the mean in the dry water seasons, and the difference between the abundant water seasons and the dry water seasons was 11.40-16.30, 3.68-5.20, 6.70-12.12, 9.92-14.40, 4.77-7.64 and 4.13-8.93 m, respectively. The snail areas was (28 613 ± 362) hm² and (29 477 ± 918) hm² (t = -3.00, P = 0.007), the density of living snails was 1.51 (1.15-2.43) and 0.43 (0.29-1.10) snails/0.11 m² (H = 4.28, P < 0.001) before and after the impoundment of the Three Gorges Project, respectively. The average infection rate of people and cattle was 1.68% (99 482/5 935 147) and 4.62% (13 923/3 011 33), and the average number of acute schistosomiasis cases was 328, before the impoundment of the Three Gorges Project; 0.60% (39 747/6 649 380), 1.65% (1 291/783 224) and 71 after the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Project, respectively. The snail areas had negative correlation with the highest water level, the difference between the highest and lowest water level, the mean in the abundant water seasons (r value was -0.514, -0.509 and -0.477; P value was 0.014, 0.015 and 0.025, respectively). The infection rate of people had positive correlation with the highest water level, the difference between the highest and lowest water level, the mean in the abundant water seasons (r value was 0.532, 0.587 and 0.446; P value was 0.011, 0.004 and 0.038, respectively). The infection rate of cattle had positive correlation with the highest water level, the difference between the highest and lowest water level (r value was 0.507 and 0.553; P value was 0.016 and 0.008, respectively). The number of acute schistosomiasis cases had positive correlation with the highest water level, the difference between the highest and lowest water level (r value was 0.481 and 0.486; P value was 0.023 and 0.022, respectively).

CONCLUSIONFollowing the runs of the Three Gorges Reservoir Project, the change of water level in the section of Anhui Province affected the distribution of snails and the infection of people and cattle to some extent. The snail areas showed an upward trend, and the density of living snails, the infection rate of people and cattle showed a downward trend. The runs of Three Gorges Reservoir Project has certain role to reduce flood and helpful for schistosomiasis control.

Animals ; Cattle ; China ; Floods ; Humans ; Lakes ; Prevalence ; Rain ; Schistosomiasis ; Seasons ; Snails

Drought, flood, salinity, or a combination of these limits rice production. Several rice varieties are well known for their tolerance to specific abiotic stresses. We determined genetic relationship among 12 rice varieties including 9 tolerant to drought, flood, or salinity using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Based on all markers, the nine tolerant varieties formed one cluster distinct from the cluster of three control varieties. The salt-tolerant varieties were closest to two flood-tolerant varieties, and together they were distinct from the drought-tolerant varieties. (GA)(8)YG was the most informative primer, showing the highest polymorphic information content (PIC) and resolving power (Rp). The drought-, flood-, and salt-tolerant varieties grouped in three distinct clusters within the group of tolerant varieties, when (GA)(8)YG was used. Sabita was the only exception. The two aus varieties, Nagina22 and FR13A, were separated and grouped with the drought- and flood-tolerant varieties, respectively, but they were together in dendrograms based on other primers. The results show that ISSR markers associated with (GA)(8)YG delineated the three groups of stress-tolerant varieties from each other and can be used to identify genes/new alleles associated with the three abiotic stresses in rice germplasm.
Droughts ; Floods ; Genotype ; Oryza ; classification ; genetics ; Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid ; Salinity