Pacific island regional preparedness for El Niño

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle is often blamed for disasters in Pacific island communities. From a disaster risk reduction (DRR) perspective, the challenges with the El Niño part of the ENSO cycle, in particular, are more related to inadequate vulnerability reduction within development than to ENSO-induced hazard influences. This paper analyses this situation, filling in a conceptual and geographic gap in El Niño-related research, by reviewing El Niño-related preparedness (the conceptual gap) for Pacific islands (the geographic gap). Through exploring El Niño impacts on Pacific island communities alongside their vulnerabilities, resiliences, and preparedness with respect to El Niño, El Niño is seen as a constructed discourse rather than as a damaging phenomenon, leading to suggestions for El Niño preparedness as DRR as part of development. Yet the attention which El Niño garners might bring resources to the Pacific region and its development needs, albeit in the short term while El Niño lasts. Conversely, the attention given to El Niño could shift blame from underlying causes of vulnerability to a hazard-centric viewpoint. Instead of focusing on one hazard-influencing phenomenon, opportunities should be created for the Pacific region to tackle wider DRR and development concerns

Emerging viral threats in Gabon: health capacities and response to the risk of emerging zoonotic diseases in Central Africa

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) are currently the major threat to public health worldwide and most EID events have involved zoonotic infectious agents. Central Africa in general and Gabon in particular are privileged areas for the emergence of zoonotic EIDs. Indeed, human incursions in Gabonese forests for exploitation purposes lead to intensified contacts between humans and wildlife thus generating an increased risk of emergence of zoonotic diseases. In Gabon, 51 endemic or potential endemic viral infectious diseases have been reported. Among them, 22 are of zoonotic origin and involve 12 families of viruses. The most notorious are dengue, yellow fever, ebola, marburg, Rift Valley fever and chikungunya viruses. Potential EID due to wildlife in Gabon are thereby plentiful and need to be inventoried. The Gabonese Public Health system covers geographically most of the country allowing a good access to sanitary information and efficient monitoring of emerging diseases. However, access to treatment and prevention is better in urban areas where medical structures are more developed and financial means are concentrated even though the population is equally distributed between urban and rural areas. In spite of this, Gabon could be a good field for investigating the emergence or re-emergence of zoonotic EID. Indeed Gabonese health research structures such as CIRMF, advantageously located, offer high quality researchers and facilities that study pathogens and wildlife ecology, aiming toward a better understanding of the contact and transmission mechanisms of new pathogens from wildlife to human, the emergence of zoonotic EID and the breaking of species barriers by pathogens

Enchentes e saúde pública: uma questão na literatura científica recente das causas, consequências e respostas para prevenção e mitigação Floods and Public Health: a review of the recent scientific literature on the causes, consequences and responses to prevention and mitigation

As enchentes são os desastres naturais com maior frequência e afetam a vida de aproxi madamente 102 milhões de pessoas a cada ano, principalmente nos países em desenvolvimento e em grandes centros urbanos, com tendência de aumento nas próximas décadas. O objetivo é oferecer subsídios para uma melhor compreensão destes eventos, através dos resultados e experiências encontrados na literatura científica recente. Por meio de busca no Pubmed foram analisados 70 trabalhos aos quais se teve acesso e se enquadraram nos critérios de abordar pelo menos um dos itens selecionados para análise, que eram: causas; consequências; respostas e ações; encaminhamento de propostas e soluções para a prevenção e/ou mitigação dos riscos; e, impactos das enchentes. A partir destes critérios foram montados quadros para cada um dos itens de análise de modo a sistematizar e sintetizar os resultados para as causas, as consequências ambientais, a infraestrutura, os serviços e a saúde e para as respostas e ações de prevenção e mitigação. Considerou-se que, dados os cenários de aumento na frequência e gravidade destes eventos, os desafios para o setor saúde para a redução de riscos de desastres exigem respostas integradas com amplas políticas para o desenvolvimento sustentável.<br>Floods are among the most frequent natural disasters and they affect the lives of approximately 102 million people each year, mainly in developing countries and in major urban areas with a tendency to grow further over the coming decades. The scope of this paper is to provide input for a clearer understanding of these events through the results and experiences to be gleaned from the recent scientific literature. From the Pubmed database, 70 articles were analyzed that fulfilled the criteria to address at least one of the items selected for analysis, namely: 1) causes; 2) consequences; 3) responses and actions: submission of proposals and solutions for the prevention and/or mitigation of the risks and impacts of flooding. Tables for each of the items selected were organized in order to systematize and synthesize the results for causes (attributed to natural and human activities); environmental, infrastructure and services, and health consequences (injuries and diseases classified according to chapters of ICD-10); prevention and mitigation responses and actions. It was concluded that given the scenarios of increased frequency and severity of these events, the challenges facing public health for disaster risk reduction require integrated responses with broad policies for sustainable development