Earthquake Injury Epidemiology for Mitigation and Response

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Significant resources in research support and effort have been expended on the problem of earthquake hazard mitigation over the past twenty years. Most of this research effort has been directed toward questions of geophysical research and structural engineering. This expenditure of effort has been entirely appropriate in terms of advancing scientific understanding of the underlying phenomena responsible for earthquake losses. The tragic fact is that earthquakes continue to consume human beings. The specific mechanisms of death and injury in earthquakes have not yet been the subject of extensive study. In particular, very little is known as to what distinguished those who survive from those who do not. As yet, there is no effective field of earthquake injury epidemiology and prevention. While there have been indications of promise and interest from individual researchers in several fields, this topic has suffered the fate of many transdisciplinary problems. It has been dealt with peripherally by several disciplines, but not accepted as the central responsibility of any particular research group. An international workshop on the epidemiology of injuries in natural disasters will be organized. The purpose of the workshop is twofold: evaluation and discussion of existing information from past events, and the formulation of a practical set of guidelines for future data collection.