World Disasters Report 2000 - Public health

The report by chapters

Chapter 1 - World Disasters Report 2000 - Public health
The trend toward privatization of health care throughout developing and transitional states is plunging the world's poorest into ill-health.
Last year, more than 13 million people died of infectious diseases alone…far more than the number killed in the natural or man-made catastrophes that make headlines.
Chapter 2 - Assessing and targeting public health priorities
As disasters and conflict soak up the precious resources of poorer states, little is left to support long-term public health provision. As humanitarian response tries to bridge between emergency relief and rehabilitation, it is encountering unlimited needs with limited resources.

Chapter 3 - AIDS in Africa:
no longer business as usual
Over the next decade, AIDS will kill more people in sub Saharan Africa than all the wars of the 20th century. "This isn't some disease, it's a disaster," says a Kenyan community worker. With more than 70 per cent of the global caseload of AIDS afflicting sub-Saharan Africa, the disease is considered the greatest single threat to development and political stability.

Chapter 4 - North Korea's public health pays the price of isolation
North Korea's public health Public health in DPRK is crumbling because of political and economic isolation. While reports of famine during 1994-95 made headlines, lack of investment in public health plus increases in TB and malaria threatens the lives of thousands.

Chapter 5 - Chernobyl: a chronic disaster
Fourteen years after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, radioactivity has wreaked havoc on the bodies and minds of millions of survivors. Rising rates of thyroid cancer have developed among the survivors, there is evidence of congenital abnormalities and up to 3 million people may be suffering mental trauma as a result of the accident.

Chapter 6 - Kosovo – the humanitarian Klondike
The NATO - Serbian conflict during 1999 culminated in the forced exodus of a million refugees and a swarm of hundreds of aid agencies and journalists. This chapter explores Kosovo as a case study of an emergency response that delivered too much of the wrong kind of aid…inappropriate drugs, and too many International health NGO's. The onslaught of aid actually hampered local efforts at recovery.

Chapter 7 - Surprise upturn in global aid
"Too much help made a mess here," explained one spontaneous helper who drove to Golcuk, Turkey, following 1999's massive earthquake which killed 17,000 people. Hoping to bring relief, thousands of 'volunteers' created a 20-mile traffic jam obstructing rescue vehicles and equipment.

Chapter 8 - Towards an international
disaster response law
International humanitarian law has been in place for 130 years to regulate wars and provide assistance to its victims but no international laws exist to govern the assistance provided to victims of natural and technological disasters.

Print

Related documents

Full version of the report

-