Disaster Mitigation
in Health Facilities—Wind Effects

Each type of natural disaster poses a unique risk to health and health facilities. In the case of hurricanes, the effects of high winds can affect both the structural and non-structural elements of a hospital or clinic. This new training material focuses on reducing the vulnerability of structural elements; those parts of a building that withstand gravitational and lateral loads to ensure stability. It also looks at non-structural elements and those that have special functions such as communication networks, gas and water pipes, electrical wiring, and medical equipment and supplies.

Examples are drawn from the partial or total failure of hospitals in the region and the material is designed to guide planners of health infrastructure (hospital administrators, engineers, architects, technicians, etc.) in Latin America and the Caribbean in reviewing the effects hurricanes on their facilities and assessing their vulnerability.

All of this material—which includes PowerPoint presentations with scripts, technical publications on disaster mitigation in health facilities and posters suitable for reproduction—is on the web at www.disaster-info.net/viento. A limited number of CD-ROMs containing the material is available. Write to disaster-publications@paho.org.

Health Preparedness Guidelines
for Volcanic Eruptions

Most of the active volcanoes worldwide are concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean and millions of people live in cities and towns close to them. Throughout history, these volcanoes have demonstrated their enormous capacity for destruction. The new Preparedenss Guidelines for Volcanic Eruptions (currently available in Spanish only as Guía de Preparativos de Salud Frente a Erupciones Volcánicas) provides support material to prepare health contingency plans to deal with these emergencies. The preparation of these guidelines involved a long process of collecting, organizing and testing the material, in which more than 100 experts were consulted, primarily from Colombia and Ecuador.

Five modules dealing with health sector risks, protecting health services, damage and needs assessment, environmental risks and communications planning are packaged together into this set of training aids. The guidelines also include a CD with PowerPoint presentations on each module, a description of the volcanic situation in Ecuador and Colombia and reference publications. Those interested in acquiring this material in Spanish should get in touch with the CRID. It is also available on the web at www.paho.org/disasters (click on Publications Catalog).