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Volume 8 Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education Public Health Congress 2018
July 23-24, 2018
Page 27
Notes:
conferenceseries.com
July 23-24, 2018 Melbourne, Australia
5th World Congress on
Public Health, Nutrition & Epidemiology
Significance of environmental health in emergencies and disasters: Lessons learnt & way forward
Any part of the world can be affected by disasters and emergency situations, affecting human lives and the environment.
Therefore, environmental health has a significant role in all phases of disaster planning, preparedness, response, recovery
and rehabilitation. Actually, the environmental health hazards directly influence the human health, social wellbeing and
survival, e.g. shelter, water, wastewater, sanitation, waste, hygiene, food, pollution and so on. Environmental health activities
are interdisciplinary involving different authorities, organizations and professionals from many backgrounds and are involved
in wide range of activities not limited to health, for example community participation, health education, search and rescue
operations, training, public education and other social aspects related to protection of health and the environment. A large scale
disasters and emergencies have substantial humanitarian, social, political, security and economic implications. Despite the fact
that environmental health is widely believed to be integral part of disaster management but still it is not given the due significance
when it comes to allocation of human and financial resources in an event of emergencies and disasters. Environmental health
teamhas to exert more to work with different sectors to achieve desirable results; therefore the environmental health practitioners
are encouraged to closely interact with other relevant authorities and agencies and develop strong working relationships by
enhancing environmental health role in the event of emergencies and disaster management. An integrated approach with other
sectors should be promoted to improve all phases of emergency/disaster management cycle.
Biography
Amir Elahi Johri is a Public Health Physician and has extensive experience in environmental/public health. He has worked for many international and national
organizations around the world. His expertise includes environmental health in emergencies, environmental and occupational health policies and strategies,
environmental health risk assessment, migrants and refugees health, etc. He has worked for World Health Organization (WHO) at the national and international
level. He was also engaged with International Organization for Migration (IOM) with Syrian refugees in Jordan. Currently he is the Advisor at the Department of
Environmental and Occupational Health, Ministry of Health Oman. He has presented several papers at different international forums. He is actively involved in
developing national environmental health and occupational policies, strategies and actions plans, as well as training and teaching of environmental and occupational
health disciplines.
Amir Elahi Johri
Ministry of Health-Oman, Oman
Amir Elahi Johri, J Community Med Health Educ 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0711-C3-037