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A major earthquake causes massive destruction, high mortality, many casualties and protracted health problems. The impact creates immediate medical needs at the epicentre, while secondary health‐related problems are likely to arise in the areas to which the stricken population has moved for safety, or even afar in time and space, should the country′s socio‐economic destabilization cause further deterioration of the health conditions. Epidemiological studies have shed light on the disease patterns following disasters, including earthquakes, and preparedness measures are possible. Discusses hospitals, injury, patient transport, logistics, communications, and disease and treatment problems arising from recent earthquakes, including Kobe.

Whilst there is a growing body of research which discusses the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) (otherwise known as “drones”) to transport medical supplies, almost all reported cases employ short range aircraft. The purpose of this paper is to consider the advantages and challenges inherent in the use of long endurance remotely piloted aircraft systems (LE-RPAS) aircraft to support the provision of medical supplies to remote locations – specifically “medical maggots” used in maggot debridement therapy (MDT) wound care.

After introducing both MDT and the LE-RPAS technology, the paper first reports on the outcomes of a case study involving 11 semi-structured interviews with individuals who either have experience and expertise in the use of LE-RPAS or in the provision of healthcare to remote communities in Western Australia. The insights gained from this case study are then synthesised to assess the feasibility of LE-RPAS assisted delivery of medical maggots to those living in such geographically challenging locations.

No insuperable challenges to the concept of using LE-RPAS to transport medical maggots were uncovered during this research – rather, those who contributed to the investigations from across the spectrum from operators to users, were highly supportive of the overall concept.

The paper offers an assessment of the feasibility of the use of LE-RPAS to transport medical maggots. In doing so, it highlights a number of infrastructure and organisational challenges that would need to be overcome to operationalise this concept. Whilst the particular context of the paper relates to the provision of medical support to a remote location of a developed country, the core benefits and challenges that are exposed relate equally to the use of LE-RPAS in a post-disaster response. To this end, the paper offers a high-level route map to support the implementation of the concept.

The paper proposes a novel approach to the efficient and effective provision of medical care to remote Australian communities which, in particular, reduces the need to travel significant distances to obtain treatment. In doing so, it emphasises the importance in gaining acceptance of both the use of MDT and also the operation of RPAS noting that these have previously been employed in a military, as distinct from humanitarian, context.

The paper demonstrates how the use of LE-RPAS to support remote communities offers the potential to deliver healthcare at reduced cost compared to conventional approaches. The paper also underlines the potential benefits of the use of MDT to address the growing wound burdens in remote communities. Finally, the paper expands on the existing discussion of the use of RPAS to include its capability to act as the delivery mechanism for medical maggots.

Enormous numbers of people suffer from the effects of disasters and humanitarian crises in Africa, including medical and healthcare emergencies. International response to the 2014–2016 Ebola pandemic in West Africa and COVID 19 pandemic vividly demonstrates the need for efficient and effective logistics and supply chain systems in bringing succor to impacted and vulnerable communities. This paper critically reviews the academic literature on logistics models for sourcing, delivery and distribution of medical and healthcare products for humanitarian emergencies in Africa from 1990 to 2018. The paper suggests areas for further research and proposes an effective logistics model useful for international and national humanitarian organizations as well as public health authorities in Africa and developing areas.

The viewpoint paper draws upon a structured comprehensive and critical review of the academic literature on logistics and supply chain management and a qualitative analysis of the literature in 13 leading academic databases covering over 5,550 articles.

The paper finds significant gaps in the body of logistics and supply chain management research on practical deployable logistics models for sourcing, delivery, and distribution of medical and healthcare products for humanitarian emergencies. The paper suggests a model worthy of consideration by humanitarian and disaster response stakeholders as well as public health authorities in developing countries.

This is a critical literature review paper based on a comprehensive literature research and analysis for the period from 1990 to 2018 from which a viewpoint is formed.

This paper advocates for further research on appropriate models of logistics for the sourcing, delivery and distribution of medical and healthcare products to enhance the basic human rights and dignity of vulnerable people in developing countries.

The paper contributes directly to policy on logistics, humanitarian aid, disaster management, public health and health security policy in the developing world including Africa.

This paper aims to provide graduate students, researchers, and government and independent agencies with an overview of disaster types.

Disaster types have been the subject of research by and concern to academicians and to government and independent agencies. The paper summarizes the views of researchers and agencies. Disaster types are collected from several sources such as technical, general articles, internet web sites, and internal reports. Disaster definitions, criteria and types are reviewed. Disasters are classified into natural disasters, man‐made disasters, and hybrid disasters. Man‐made disasters are classified into technological disasters, transportation accidents, public places failure, and production failure. The paper presents a comparison between the main types of disasters.

Disasters are classified into three types: naturals, man‐mades, and hybrid disasters. It is believed that the three disaster types cover all disastrous events. No definition of disaster is universally accepted. Several criteria are proposed to define disasters. Understanding of disaster definitions, criteria, and types aids researchers and agencies in the proper classification, good recording, and better analysis of disasters. Disasters have different characteristics and impact; however, disasters have a common element, which is their severity.

This paper presents a definition of and criteria for disasters. The paper also presents an overview of disaster types. The paper presents a comparison between the main types of disasters, and combines various disaster terms into one record.

This paper aims to explore the concept of resilience both through conceptual lenses and an applied relevance and importance to the tourism and hospitality industry in the context of identifying the most effective approaches to cope with the worldwide epidemic of COVID-19.

This conceptual paper is based on a comprehensive literature review and strategic interdisciplinary analysis as a basis for comprehensive policy recommendations.

This paper suggests five clusters of globally applicable measures and approaches aimed to enhance the resilience of the tourism and hospitality industry in the face of COVID-19 and more broadly in the face of other regional and global large-scale disasters: fostering adaptive and creative leadership; humility and cautious navigating through a deep uncertainty; flexibility in building on the unknown; enhancing social capital; and developing mutual respect and positive interconnectivity among the various stakeholders.

Through policy-driven applied conceptual analysis, this paper provides the various audiences in the travel and hospitality sector across the globe with an original, flexible and strategic approach to effectively respond to the multiple cascading effects of COVID-19.

Earthquake usually causes death, injury, disability and destruction of buildings and infrastructure, and people with disabilities are usually affected more than healthy people. As undesirable experiences may also have positive outcomes, this study aims to investigate the experiences of PWD and identify the positive effects of earthquakes on them in Iran, as an earthquake-prone country.

In this qualitative study, 20 participants were selected purposively among those having physical disability, aged 23-55 years and with experience of an earthquake. Their opinions were collected using semi-structured interviews. Analysis was performed using thematic approach and MAXQDA software was used to organize the data.

The positive effects of earthquake were categorized into five main themes: promotion of preparedness, knowledge enhancement, improvement of structures, socio-economic improvement (economic situation enhancement and social cohesion promotion) and outstanding role of national and international non-governmental organizations.

Although disasters are generally unpleasant, in the long term, they can result in positive effects and may be considered as opportunities to improve the situation and eliminate certain limitations. It is also important to learn from experiences of people with disabilities and apply the lessons learned, for enhancing preparedness and providing better services in the response phase of disaster management. Additionally, paying attention to the positive attitudes of such people, with special conditions and limitations, indicates their enhanced resilience to cope with disasters and emergencies, including COVID-19, which should be taken into consideration by policymakers and planners in future programs.

This study aims to evaluate the functional readiness of selected hospitals in Tehran in the face of biological events focusing on the Coronavirus.

The current study is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study, with the research population consisting of four hospitals in Tehran (Ministry of Health, Social Security, Azad and Military University). This study used data collection tools, standardized functional preparedness tools for hospitals using a biological approach and a standardized checklist of biological event preparations for the American Hospital Association. Interviews with the incident and disaster committee director and observation of each hospital’s existing documents, were used to collect data, which was then analyzed using SPSS-16 software.

According to the results, the average percentage of total hospital preparedness in biological events is 36.9%. With 53.3%, the selected military hospital has the most preparation, whereas the Ministry of Health has the lowest preparation with 28.3%. Surge capacity management and communication had the most remarkable preparedness rate of 68.75% (adequate preparedness), biological consultants, meeting management and post-disaster recovery had the lowest preparedness rate of 0% (extremely weak preparedness).

The average functional preparedness of selected hospitals in Tehran was assessed at an insufficient level in this study. Given the recurrence of disease waves, these results are helpful in increasing hospital preparedness for impending events. Improving preparedness in most areas, especially in post-disaster recovery seems necessary.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to assess hospitals’ readiness to increase capacity and respond to this scourge. Few studies have been done in this field in the world. This study investigates this issue in the capital of Iran. The finding of this study suggest authorities’ attention to this issue and the creation of severe and prompt solutions and measures and the use of military hospital experiences to improve biological threat preparedness.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the past events where communication challenges have occurred during a disaster, and events in which amateur radio had played a vital role in creating reliable communication links during the disaster response. Furthermore, this paper identifies the modern technology available with amateur radio operators that can be used to create reliable communication networks in order to meet the high demand of disaster communication.

In this paper the author has conducted an integrative literature review, while analyzing case studies of disasters where communication challenges have occurred and the amateur radio has provided communication support during a disaster response.

In today’s world there is a heavy reliance on centralized communications infrastructure such as cell towers, which are very likely to fail during a disaster. Failure or overload of such infrastructure will cause disruptions in communications and make the disaster response inefficient. Amateur radio does not rely on centralized communications infrastructure, and has the ability to be used to meet the demand during many disaster situations. Thus, it is very important for emergency professionals to understand the value of including amateur radio operators in emergency operations plans.

Research is qualitative in nature, with an aim to write a short paper introducing the issues of Disaster Communications.

This paper is intended to provide an insight about the importance of reliable communications during a disaster. Communication interruptions can create a lot of problems and cause inadequate coordination between response agencies. In order to mitigate such challenges it is crucial to study the vital role of amateur radio in supporting the communications when all other mediums of communication fail.