The negative health effects of flooding in urban wetlands and the contraction of waterborne diseases.
Flooding is brought about by a flood which is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries. The word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods can also occur in rivers, when flow exceeds the capacity of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders. (Flood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood, retrieved 13 April, 2011.)
Floods have primary , secondary and tertiary effects. The primary effects are physical damages. Secondary effects include contamination of the water supply, water-borne diseases, shortages in the food crops, trees dying from suffocation. The tertiary effects is related to the economics- usually a negative impact as there is a decline in tourism, shortages and rebuilding costs.
The characteristics on health impacts caused by floods according to a study by Mike Ahern et al. from the Public and Environmental Health Research Unit of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is summarized below:
“Mortality: Flood-related mortality has been studied in both high- (7–17) and low-income (18–21) countries. The most readily identified flood deaths are those that occur acutely from drowning or trauma, such as being hit by objects in fast-flowing waters. The number of such deaths is determined by the characteristics of the flood, including its speed of onset (flash floods are more hazardous than slow-onset ones), depth, and extent (3). Many drownings occur when vehicles are swept away by floodwaters (12, 14, 15, 17). Evidence relating to flash floods in high-income countries suggests that most deaths are due to drowning and, particularly in the United States, are vehicle related (9, 22). Information on risk factors for flood-related death remains limited, but men appear more at risk than women (22). Those drowning in their own homes are largely the elderly.
Inconclusive evidence for diarrheal deaths has been reported from several studies of floods in low-income countries. Surveillance data showed an apparent increase of mortality from diarrhea following the 1988 floods in Khartoum, Sudan, but a similar rise was also apparent in the same period (May–July) of the preceding year (20). Routine surveillance data and hospital admissions records similarly showed diarrhea to be the most frequent (27 percent) cause of death following the severe 1988 Bangladesh floods, but again the effect of the flood was not separately quantified from seasonal influences (19). Kunii et al. (21) conducted a cross-sectional survey after the 1998 floods in Bangladesh, and of 3,109 people within flood-affected households, seven (0.23 percent) died during (but not necessarily a consequence of) the flood, two from diarrhea, two from suspected heart attacks, and three from undetermined/unrecorded causes.
Injuries: Flood-related injuries may occur as individuals attempt to remove themselves, their family, or valued possessions from danger. There is also potential for injuries when people return to their homes and businesses and begin the clean-up operation (e.g., from unstable buildings and electrical power cables). Surprisingly little information is available on the frequency of nonfatal flood injuries, as they are mostly not routinely reported or identified as flood related. Although the international EM-DAT database (http://www.em-dat.net/) records such injuries, these data are much less robust than are reports of deaths (D. Guha-Sapir, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Université Catholique de Louvain, personal communication, 2004).
Fecal-oral disease: In flood conditions, there is potential for increased fecal-oral transmission of disease, especially in areas where the population does not have access to clean water and sanitation. Published studies (case-control studies, cross-sectional surveys, outbreak investigations, analyses of routine data) have reported post flood increases in cholera (25, 26), cryptosporidiosis (27), nonspecific diarrhea (18–21, 28–31), poliomyelitis (32), rotavirus (33), and typhoid and paratyphoid (34) (table 1). Some of the reported relative risks associated with flooding are substantial. In Indonesia, for example, Vollaard et al. (34) found flooding of the home to increase paratyphoid fever, with an odds ratio of 4.52 (95 percent confidence interval (CI): 1.90, 10.73), and Katsumata et al. (27) found it to increase the risk of cryptosporidiosis, with an odds ratio of 3.08 (95 percent CI: 1.9, 4.9).
Vector-borne disease: The relation between flooding and vector-borne disease is complex. Many important infections are transmitted by mosquitoes, which breed in, or close to, stagnant or slow-moving water (puddles, ponds). Floodwaters can wash away breeding sites and, hence, lower mosquito-borne transmission (41). On the other hand, the collection of stagnant water due to the blocking of drains, especially in urban settings, can also be associated with increases in transmission, and there have been numerous such reports from Africa (20, 30, 42, 43), Asia (44, 45), and Latin America (46–50). The 1982 El Niño event, for example, caused extensive flooding in several countries in Latin America and apparently sharp increases in malaria (46,47). The Mozambique floods of 2000 also appeared to have increased the number of malaria cases by a factor of 1.5–2 by comparison with 1999 and 2001 (30), although the statistics are difficult to interpret in light of the major population displacement that the flood caused. The reports of flood-related outbreaks in India (44, 45) do not provide particularly strong epidemiologic evidence.
There have also been reported increases in lymphatic filariasis (51) and arbovirus disease in Africa (43), Australia (52, 53), Europe (54–56), and the United States (57–59), although few provide epidemiologic data. Having had a flooded basement has been reported to be a risk factor for West Nile virus among apartment dwellers in Romania (54).
Rodent-borne disease: Diseases transmitted by rodents may also increase during heavy rainfall and flooding because of altered patterns of contact. Examples include Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (60) and leptospirosis. There have been reports of flood-associated outbreaks of leptospirosis from a wide range of countries, including Argentina (61), Brazil (62–65), Cuba (66), India (67–70), Korea (71), Mexico (72), Nicaragua (73–75), Portugal (76), and Puerto Rico (77). In Salvador, Brazil, risk factors for leptospirosis included flooding of open sewers and streets during the rainy season (65). After a series of tropical storms in 1995, two health centers in western Nicaragua reported cases of a fever-like illness and some deaths from hemorrhagic manifestations and shock (73). Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever were initially suspected (74), but after a case-control study, Trevejo et al. (73) concluded that the most likely explanation was increased exposure to floodwaters contaminated by urine from animals infected with Leptospira species. Although several articles (73–75) implicate contact with floodwaters, specific analyses have not been presented.
Mental health: The World Health Organization recognizes that the mental health consequences of floods “have not been fully addressed by those in the field of disaster preparedness or service delivery,” although it is generally accepted that natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes, “take a heavy toll on the mental health of the people involved, most of whom live in developing countries, where [the] capacity to take care of these problems is extremely limited”
Other health outcomes: In addition to the health outcomes detailed above, our review identified reports of other flood-related health impacts, including Acanthamoeba keratitis (104), epilepsy (105), leukemia, lymphoma, spontaneous abortion (106), melioidosis (107), effects of chemical contamination (108, 109), infection from soil helminths (110), and schistosomiasis (111–113). Most were isolated reports or provided only weak evidence of a possible flood link. (Global Health Impacts of Floods: Epidimiologic Evidence. http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/1/36.full, retrieved 13 April, 2011.)”
Here's marginal situation that gives you an edge in casio watches pakistan gambling. find the best bet table. This is most likely to desist funds by choosing the empty seat dealer to pay for the 18th card. However, choosing the lowest bet table will be a good other for people gone limited budgets.If you retrieve it upon the Internet, you will find many articles. Don't waste become old upon blackjack game strategy The key is the basic rules of the game. remember later than you should fight, allow a step back, take action or place more bets. In each betting round if you can practice until you know later than to decide what to do. You will be practiced to give up 50% of the funds.
ReplyDelete