Humanitarian Relief: A Public Health View

Abstract

When a humanitarian disaster strikes, whether natural or man-made, access to a functioning public health infrastructure is often severely disrupted. Basic life-sustaining necessities of clean water, adequate food, clothing and shelter, and medical services must be provided rapidly to all in need. Special emphasis should be given to disadvantaged populations that existed prior to the disaster, as the most vulnerable are at greatest risk under harsh conditions and scant available resources. Those would include people at the extremes of age, as well as women, the disabled, and other marginalized or persecuted groups.

The history of medicine and public health has repeatedly taught us that humility should infuse our practice and our teaching and all claims of causality. But humility need not lead to paralysis, and we hope that the reader is not caught between unreflective activism and an informed but ultimately paralytic skepticism. – Paul Farmer