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Notes from Nepal: Is There a Better Way to Provide Search and Rescue?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2015

Kobi Peleg*
Affiliation:
Israeli National Center for Trauma and Emergency Medicine Research, The Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, and the Disaster Medicine Department & the Executive Master Programs for Emergency and Disaster Management, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Kobi Peleg, PhD, MPH, National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan, Israel 52621 (e-mail: kobip@gertner.health.gov.il).

Abstract

This article discusses a possibility for overcoming the limited efficiency of international search and rescue teams in saving lives after earthquakes, which was emphasized by the recent disaster in Nepal and in other earthquakes all over the world. Because most lives are actually saved by the locals themselves long before the international teams arrive on scene, many more lives could be saved by teaching the basics of light rescue to local students and citizens in threatened countries. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:650–652)

Type
Concepts in Disaster Medicine
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2015 

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References

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