Health and hurricanes in the developing world : A case study in the Dominican Republic

ABSTRACT

This is a study of the public health consequences of a 1979 hurricane disaster in the Dominican Republic. An evaluation of the health relief that followed the disaster, and an investigation of the role that three communities played in their own protection and recovery the epidemiology section of the study used from provincial and community levels. The provincial data, covering approximately three and one half years prior to and one half years following the disaster, demonstrate delayed-impact epidemic increases in typhoid fever gastroenteritis, measles, and hepatitis. The delays represented two to three generations of the incuration periods of the pathogens, resulting in peak incidences one to six months following the hurricanes previous studies failed to show these delayed impact epidemics. The community-level date were obtained by surveys administered two weeks and two years after the disaster