Medical Interventions in Catastrophes and Conflict

Abstract

In this chapter, the concepts of medical intervention in the event of a catastrophe or a conflict will be examined and analysed. A convenient starting point, therefore, is an understanding of the terms involved. A medical intervention is an action taken by an agency in order to remedy a medical shortfall or problem. As such it does not neces-sarily have to be purely clinical in nature. Rather, it must simply address a medical requirement in the target population. Its delivery may be undertaken by a variety of non-medical agencies such as food-relief programmes. Similarly, a catastrophe or conflict is an event which has produced an inability to cope with the extra humani-tarian demands consequent upon the incident. Such a mismatch between demand and supply may be temporary, as in earthquake recovery in developed nations like Japan, or be long-term and seemingly intractable, as in many cases of internal conflict in Africa.