2011 February Humanity First Medical Newsletter

7/30/2019 2011 February Humanity First Medical Newsletter

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Humanity First Medical February 2011 Update. Long-term psychosocial consequences of a disaster.

Haiti 2010 Earthquake (Humanity First UK Team).

F e b r u a r y 2 0 11

( Vo l 2 , I s s u e 2 )

Welcome to the Humanity First Medical

update.

With these updates, we aim to keep you

informed about Humanity First medical

activities and talk about the latest in news

and controversies, in relation to our line

of work with these updates.

Please visit our website

Humanity First Medical

for more about our activities, wish to

contribute or need to contact the

Humanity First Medical team.

Aftermath of the Pakistan earthquake 2005 (UN)

In this months update I wish to introduce

good friend and a real humanitarian Dr

Naeem, whose, PhD from Southampton

University is based on his work in

disaster areas. He as a clinical consultant

developed funding streams in the United

Kingdom, which led to forming,

developing and training a team on ground

in Pakistan to carry out his research

work. I am pleased to say that he has

shown keen interest in Humanity First

Medical and has agreed to spare some of

his valuable time to tell us about his

research work in relation to our line of

work. This is particularly relevant to the

latest in the press about Haiti, as it stands

in 2011 one year after the earthquake. In

the next update I hope to update you

about Marks interview on the same to a

London daily. Meanwhile, over to Dr

Naeem.

L o n g t e r m p s yc h o s o c ia l co n s e q u e n c e s o f a d i s a s t e r

D r F a r o o q N aeem M B BS , M S c, M R CP s y ch , P h D

Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) can develop after any catastrophic disaster event

which involves witnessing death and serious injury. With PTSD, such an event would lead

to relentless feelings of helplessness, fear and horror.
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Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) can continue over a long period of

time. In our earlier work in Pakistan, when we surveyed Afghans refugees and Afghans

returning to Afghanistan, a very high rate of post-traumatic stress disorders was found 1.

This survey was conducted in 2003 a long time after the end of Afghan-Russian war.

There are a limited number of long-term studies on the subject and the only other long

term studies of the effect of trauma has been conducted among US war veterans which

shows similar findings and that PTSD may continue for up to two decades.

In relation to psychological effects after a disaster event I wish to mention a couple of

important points. First the psychological effect of trauma is less damaging in case of

natural disasters, compared with manmade disasters. Second, the effect of trauma tends

to be cumulative. Pakistan over recent years has suffered a series of relentless sequential

disasters in the form of floods, earth quakes, violence, wars and terrorism. This is relevant

to both deprived and non-deprived societies in the country. In a survey study in

Islamabad (capital of Pakistan)2, which has recently been hit by acts of terrorism, high

rates of post traumatic stress symptoms were reported by those watching 3 or more hours

of the news channel. I dont wish to discourage you from watching television but in ourresearch paper we concluded that watching TV channels is likely to have a cumulative

effect, in relation to daily events, when can lead to increased stress and related

psychological problems.

Finally, I wish to brush up on issues related to humanitarian work conducted by various

humanitarian agencies. In another study, of the general public in Kashmir, 18 months

after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, we endeavoured to explore the medium term effects

of trauma. Again, unsurprisingly, we found high rates of psychiatric morbidity3 but

interestingly this did not appear to be a simplistic consequence of the earthquake. At the

time of our research, aid workers, news papers, philanthropists, international and

national charities had left or were leaving. People reported a loss of a system of support,

including their religious and spiritual places, like mosques and shrines of saints. Loss of

houses and community systems meant that elders lost respect. People who had previously

survived on traditional healers were now left with limited or no access to modern

medicine. The local populations during this help period got used to the available modern

health facilities for one year. As the agencies pulled out, people became more miserable

than before. Even worst, younger people got used to working on very high wages for

international agencies. They were now unhappy not only because of their psychological

problems, loss of system of support, but also because they were unable to find a highlypaid job again.

I will conclude by saying that acute humanitarian work is important and crucial in helping

disaster stricken communities. However careful planning is needed which should also lay

emphasis on long-term planning for the communities. During the acute phase, when

agencies offer help, people are in shock or denial. Post-traumatic stress disorder

symptoms might only start to appear, when the helping agencies start to disappear from

the scene.


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R ef e r en ces

1. Mufti K, Naeem F, Chaudry HR et al. Post-traumatic stress disorder among Afghan refugees

following war.In tern at ion al psy chiat ry . Volume 4 Number 1 January 2007, 7-9

2. Taj R, Ayub M, Naeem F. PTSD symptoms in Islamabad due to watching news channels (submitted

for publication).

3. Naeem F, Ayub M, Masood K et al. Prevalence and pychosocial risk factors of PTSD: 18 months

after Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan. Journal of Affective Disorders. 10 November 2010 (available

online)

We wish to thank UN/UNICEF media team for providing some of the pictures in this newsletter

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2011 February Humanity First Medical Newsletter