Long Term Health Problems After Natural Disasters

When thinking about what to write about for this blog post I came across an article about the long-term health problems that occur after natural disasters strike. I thought this was something that was really interesting and wanted to know more about. We can infer that after a natural disaster there are going to be health problems, but I was interested in learning exactly what health problems and for how long they had an impact on these areas.

It was something that we have touched upon in class. The idea of what happens to these areas after the cameras stop rolling and the world stops paying attention to them. After the initial injuries and devastation, what are the long term effects that these people have to live through and deal with. I think that is something that is really important to pay attention to. Because so many times we stop hearing about these places, and they are still suffering and dealing with the disastrous effects of what happened. 

The article explains that “Some of the greatest challenges these people undergo is not the natural disaster itself but the residual problems stemming from the disaster, namely the long-term health problems kindled from the calamity.” This also makes me wonder, how long should the aid keep going to these places? And when does it stop and who decides it is time to stop? If the worst part of these events is the aftermath shouldn’t there be continually more aid going to these places long after the disaster occurs? 

There are three main categories of long term health problems they are mental health, communicable diseases, and health service system, damage done to the health service infrastructure in the long run. I feel like this idea of mental health often gets over looked. Even though it is one of the most common side effects of natural disasters. These long term mental health problems cause a lot of problems as the people try and return to a sense of normalcy. They interfere with going back to work and attempting to live a normal life after the devastation. This really makes me wonder what people can do to help with mental health as a long term effect, because it is something that does not just hurt the individual but the country as a whole.

The second big problem that I feel we don’t really think about is the effects on the infrastructure of the health system. The article talks about how because these disasters wipe out a lot of the resources, in the area a lot of health professionals leave especially doctors, because they can’t find any work. I found this very interesting because I feel like you would think a lot more health professionals would go to these areas, but it makes sense when you think professionally speaking, a previously high paid doctor is not going to be able to get the same work in a disaster struck area then he would in an area that was unaffected. 

This article made me really wonder a lot about what the long term effects of natural disasters are, and what the response should be, and to what extent. It was really interesting to learn about all the different effects, the article can be found here http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/06/long-term-health-problems-after-natural-disasters-strike .  

- Acadia Ryder