Health Emergency and Disaster Preparedness

The field of health emergency and disaster preparedness refers to the knowledge and capacities to effectively anticipate, respond and recover from the impacts of likely, imminent or current hazardous events or conditions.

Governments, response and recovery organizations, communities and individuals can carry out preparedness action in order to build the capacities needed to manage all types of emergencies and achieve an orderly transition from response to sustained recovery.

These actions, based on a sound analysis of disaster risks and good linkages with early warning systems, include contingency planning, stockpiling of equipment and supplies, establishment and testing of coordination mechanisms, risk awareness raising and public information of protective behaviors, and associated training and field exercises.

Key facts

Between 1970 and 2018, the Region of the Americas experienced over 4,500 disasters that killed 569,184 people and injured more than 3 million people.
Emergencies and disasters of any kind can cause multimillion-dollar economic losses and can significantly undermine the performance of health systems.
Today, more than ever, it is necessary for countries to improve their preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters—a need expressed by the Member States of the Pan American Health Organization.

PAHO Response

The Country Health Emergency Preparedness and IHR unit of the Health Emergencies Department aims to ensure that all countries of the Region have capabilities for all hazards health emergency and disaster risk management, including the core capacities needed to fulfill their responsibilities under the IHR 2005. The goal is to ensure that each Member State builds its own standing preparedness capabilities.

Major Action Lines:

Institutionalization of a national health emergency management;
Development and implementation of health multi-hazard preparedness and response plan;
Identification and training of multidisciplinary health response teams;
Regional IHR secretariat activities;
IHR Core Capacity Building, Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation;
Development of guidelines, learning materials and standard operating procedures;
Implementation of the Emergency Medical Teams initiative.

Health Sector Multi-Hazard Response Framework (MRF)

The main aim of the Health Sector Multi-Hazard Response Framework (MRF) is to improve the capacity of countries to manage their response to emergencies and disasters in a more efficient and timely manner.
The MRF facilitates an operational model that makes it possible to identify response activities, taking into account all existing hazards and to carry out those activities within a national framework based on the organization of the health sector.
The MRF is designed mainly for health sector authorities and managers responsible for emergency and disaster risk management, guiding them in the process of updating or developing response planning.
Implementation of this framework will provide countries with adequate response planning based on a multi-hazard approach.

MRF with operational model for implementing health emergency response functions

Emergency Medical Teams - The EMT Initiative in the Americas

PAHO gives technical advice to ensure that well-trained and self-sufficient Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) can provide a timely response to assist people affected by disasters and emergencies. EMTs are teams of health professionals that provide direct clinical care to people affected by emergencies and disasters, and support local health systems.

EMTs work under the overall guidance of the Classification and Minimum Standards for Emergency Medical Teams in sudden-onset disasters.

PAHO serves as Secretariat for the EMT Regional Group in the Americas and provides technical advice for:

The preparation of procedures and tools for requesting, accepting and receiving EMTs;
CICOM (Emergency Medical Team Coordination) integration with health EOCs;
Design and creation of EMTs at the national level;
Development of national registration mechanisms, both for national and international teams;
Optimization of immigration, customs and logistics processes to facilitate the deployment of EMTs.

more about the EMT initiative