Respiratory Infections Following Earthquake-Induced Tsunamis: Transmission Risk Factors and Lessons Learned for Disaster Risk Management

Abstract

Earthquake-induced tsunamis have the potential to cause extensive damage to natural and built environments and are often associated with fatalities, injuries, and infectious disease outbreaks. This review aims to examine the occurrence of respiratory infections (RIs) and to elucidate the risk factors of RI transmission following tsunamis which were induced by earthquakes in the last 20 years. Forty-seven articles were included in this review and referred to the RIs emergence following the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman, the 2009 Samoa, and the 2011 Japan earthquakes. Polymicrobial RIs were commonly detected among near-drowned tsunami survivors. Influenza outbreaks were commonly detected during the influenza transmission period. Overcrowded conditions in evacuation centers contributed to increased acute RI incidence rate, measles transmission, and tuberculosis detection. Destruction of health care infrastructures, overcrowded evacuation shelters, exposure to high pathogen densities, aggravating weather conditions, regional disease endemicity, and low vaccination coverage were the major triggering factors of RI occurrence in post-tsunami disaster settings. Knowledge of risk factors underlying RIs emergence following earthquake-induced tsunami can contribute to the implementation of appropriate disaster prevention and preparedness plans characterized by sufficient environmental planning, resistant infrastructures, resilient health care facilities, and well-established evacuation centers. Global and local disease surveillance is a key prerequisite for early warning and protection against RIs' emergence and transmission in tsunami-prone areas.

Keywords: disaster risk management; emergency shelters; evacuation centers; influenza; pneumonia; polymicrobial infection; transmission risk factors; tsunami; tsunami lung.

Figure 1

The study selection diagram showing the flow of documents through the literature review.

Figure 2

Epicenters of the earthquakes that caused the most devastating tsunami in recent history. More specifically, the Mw = 9.2, 26 December 2004 Sumatra—Andaman earthquake triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Mw = 8.1, 29 September 2009 Samoa earthquake triggered the Samoa tsunami and the Mw = 9.0, 11 March 2011 Tōhoku (Japan) earthquake generated the Great East Japan tsunami.