5. When we consider an incident as a disaster?

The news all over the world provides a substantial number of incidents occurring every day, but not all of them are described as a disaster! Moreover, the same incidents occurring in one area are considered disaster, but if it occurred in another area, it is not.

The outcome of the triggering event by its effects on human and environment decides whether this is a disaster or not. The factors affecting the disaster outcome are (1) scope of the impact, (2) speed of the impact, (3) duration of the impact, and (4) social preparedness of the community [12].

disasters like deforestation leading to landslides and global warming leading to increase in floods and cyclones. Sometimes, it leads to an increase in the effects of them, for example, badly distributed population with little safety precautions in houses, bad health systems, or increase in transportation all escalated the negative effects of infections and faster and wider distribution.

Disasters and Disaster Medicine

97

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72947

Building upon the notes in the previous paragraph, several experts changed the concepts of disaster from a natural phenomenon for which nothing can be done to a social act which can be

The focus of studying disasters shifted from the causative agent-centered approach to the vulnerable population approach by researchers like David Alexander, Dennis Mileti, and Allen

E. L. Quarantelli, 1992, stated in his article "The Importance of Thinking of Disasters as Social Phenomena" that it is not causative agent or the triggering event that makes the disaster. It is argued, disasters are, one way or another, primarily the results of human actions. A disaster is not a physical happening, it is a social event. There is a conjuncture of certain physical happenings and certain social happenings. Therefore, if there is no human injury or loss and/or no envi-

1. Although disasters are of diverse types and effects, theirmedical responses have common features. The needs are always more than the resources in disasters which need changes in our focus from

2. Majority of hazards have return periods on a human time scale. Examples include a 5-, 50-, and a 100-year flood. This reflects a statistical measure of how often a hazard event of a given magnitude and intensity will occur. The frequency is measured in terms of a haz-

3. Studying will help planners to make better plans and preparation to avoid needless life

1. Primary effects occur because of the process itself. For example, water damage during a flood or collapse of buildings during an earthquake, a landslide, or a hurricane.

losses and decrease the effects of the disasters expected in any area.

Hazardous process of all types can have primary, secondary, and tertiary effects:

individual benefit to community benefit. Also change in the way of delivering the care.

Barton. This concept leads to a change in the results and outcomes of disasters [28].

7. Disasters are social phenomena

ronmental effect, then there is no disaster [29].

There are several reasons for studying disasters as follows:

8. Why we study disasters

ard's recurrence interval [30].

9. Consequences of disasters

changed and manipulated to prevent it or decrease its effect.

From this perspective, we can realize the importance of studying disasters, study the disaster response plan, and train the communities on how to respond. With this, we can get a better result in case there is a disaster.

Hazard: "A hazard is an agent which has the potential to cause harm to a vulnerable target" [14]. In disaster medicine, it is: "A Hazard is a potential source of harm or adverse health effect on a person or persons" [15].

Risk: "someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard" [16]. In disaster medicine, it is: "risk is the likelihood that a person may be harmed or suffers adverse health effects if exposed to a hazard" [15].

Vulnerable: "capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt" [17]. IFRC defines it as "the diminished capacity of an individual or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural or man-made hazard" [18].

For more definitions, please see the links at the end of the chapter.
