| Revisions to Iran’s National Public Health Emergency Operation Plan (PHEOP) are
currently underway.1 Lessons learned from the recent twin earthquakes in East Azerbaijan
in northeast Iran can be incorporated to enhance the health sector response.
On August 11, 2012, two consecutive magnitude 61 earthquakes hit East Azerbaijan
(EA) province in Iran at 4:53 PM and 5:04 PM local time. The quakes led to 303 deaths
and 2,600 injuries, and affected 60,000 people across 182 villages.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Education deployed an assessment team to
Tabriz (the capital of province) along with a team of technical advisers. Massive medical
and search and rescue operations were undertaken during the first 24 hours, and were
followed by public health operations.2 Here, we would like to address two main challenges
that have bearing on revisions to the PHEOP.
The health system in three affected districts of East Azerbaijan province was severely
damaged. According to the existing emergency plan, the District Public Health Centers
(DPHCs) are focal points for management of disaster response. In this event, all three
DPHCs in addition to 89 health houses were damaged, and failed in their functions.2 As
a result, mutual assistance was invoked from neighboring districts. While health workers
were able to take on some of the functions of the damaged centers, they could not
effectively take on the coordinating role for disaster response. To prevent this problem in
the future, we propose the development of Disaster Public Health Assistance Teams
(DPHATs) to be incorporated into Iran’s new emergency plan. Disaster Public Health
Assistance Teams must be equipped for two functions: (1) to support the DPHC in terms
of command and coordination functions; and (2) to augment the provision of health
services in damaged centers for the first 72 hours. |