• JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc · Mar 2018

    Health Problems while Working as a Volunteer or Humanitarian Aid Worker in Post-Earthquake Nepal.

    • Durga Bhandari and Prativa Pandey.
    • CIWEC Hospital and Travel Medicine Center, Kapurdhara Marg, Kathmandu, Nepal, Department of Internal Medicine, Kantipur Dental College Teaching Hospital and Research Center, Kathmandu, Nepal.
    • JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2018 Mar 1; 56 (211): 691-695.

    IntroductionVolunteers and humanitarian aid workers working in disaster struck areas of the world are a vulnerable group of travelers. Nepal saw an influx of these humanitarian aid workers following earthquakes in April and May 2015. This study was undertaken to find out the pre-travel preparation and to estimate the risk of disease while the volunteers were deployed in Nepal.MethodsThis was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at CIWEC Hospital located in Kathmandu. A questionnaire was given to all volunteers and aid workers who arrived at the hospital for evaluation of health related problems and agreed to be part of the study.ResultsNinety-five volunteers were enrolled in the study. Among these, 65 (68%) were female and 30 (32%) were male. The immunizations received before travel were Hepatitis A 82 (86%), Hepatitis B 82 (86%), Typhoid 70 (73%), Rabies 38 (40%), Japanese Encephalitis 34 (36%), Influenza within last one year 23 (24%), measles 48 (51%), Cholera 34 (36%),Tetanus within 10 years 71 (75%) and Varicella 38 (40%). Forty-four (45%) of travelers carried medication for treatment of Traveler's Diarrhea (TD) which included Ciprofloxacin, Azithromycin, Loperamide and others like Metronidazole and Charcoal. The common illnesses encountered were gastrointestinal, skin problems , injury and musculoskeletal problems, respiratory problems, genitourinary problems, cardiovascular, psychological problems, syncope, and miscellaneous.ConclusionsTraveler's Diarrhea and dermatological problems were the most common health related problems. Volunteers were not properly prepared for self-treatment and pre-travel preparation was sub-optimal. Important pre travel health advice will decrease the incidence of health problems in this group.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…