Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct 1;30(5):928-935.
doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckz111.

Natural disasters and infectious disease in Europe: a literature review to identify cascading risk pathways

Jonathan E Suk  1 , Eleanor C Vaughan  2 , Robert G Cook  2 , Jan C Semenza  1
Affiliations

Natural disasters and infectious disease in Europe: a literature review to identify cascading risk pathways

Jonathan E Suk et al. Eur J Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Natural disasters are increasing in their frequency and complexity. Understanding how their cascading effects can lead to infectious disease outbreaks is important for developing cross-sectoral preparedness strategies. The review focussed on earthquakes and floods because of their importance in Europe and their potential to elucidate the pathways through which natural disasters can lead to infectious disease outbreaks.

Methods: A systematic literature review complemented by a call for evidence was conducted to identify earthquake or flooding events in Europe associated with potential infectious disease events.

Results: This review included 17 peer-reviewed papers that reported on suspected and confirmed infectious disease outbreaks following earthquakes (4 reports) or flooding (13 reports) in Europe. The majority of reports related to food- and water-borne disease. Eleven studies described the cascading effect of post-disaster outbreaks. The most reported driver of disease outbreaks was heavy rainfall, which led to cross-connections between water and other environmental systems, leading to the contamination of rivers, lakes, springs and water supplies. Exposure to contaminated surface water or floodwater following flooding, exposure to animal excreta and post-disaster living conditions were among other reported drivers of outbreaks.

Conclusions: The cascade effects of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, include outbreaks of infectious disease. The projection that climate change-related extreme weather events will increase in Europe in the coming century highlights the importance of strengthening preparedness planning and measures to mitigate and control outbreaks in post-disaster settings.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA diagram showing the flow of documents through the literature review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. CRED. 2018 Review of Disaster Events. Supplementary Information. Brussels: UC Louvain, 2019.
    1. Guha-Sapir D, Checchi F. Science and politics of disaster death tolls. BMJ 2018;362:k4005. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k4005. - PubMed
    1. EC. Overview of Natural and Man-Made Disaster Risks the European Union May Face. Brussels: European commission, 2017.
    1. Pescaroli G, Nones M, Galbusera L, Alexander D. Understanding and mitigating cascading crises in the global interconnected system. Int J Disaster Risk Reduct 2018;30:159–63.
    1. Pescaroli G, Alexander DE. A definition of cascading disasters and cascading effects: going beyond the ‘toppling dominos’ metaphor. Planet@Risk, Global Forum Davos 2015;3:58–67.

Publication types