Morbidity pattern and impact of rehabilitative services in earth quake victims of Kashmir, India

Background: The Kashmir earthquake also known as South Asia earthquake, hit both sides of Jammu & Kashmir on October 8th 2005 and was quite devastating with official toll of deaths being 73,276 in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (POK) and 1,360 deaths in the Indian administered Kashmir. The injured registering on the two sides were around 100,000 and 6,300 respectively. This was followed by a series of aftershocks on both sides for another 3 weeks Method: A follow up (retrospective) survey was conducted by the Department of Community Medicine SKIMS, Srinagar in collaboration with National Institute of Orthopedically Handicapped (NIOH), Kolkata, immediately after the devastating earthquake of October 2008 that hit Kashmir (Jammu & Kashmir- India) and northern parts of India with the objectives to know the nature of the injuries, magnitude of disabilities, rehabilitative services provided, and service satisfaction. Addresses of earthquake victims registered with various health institutions, Tertiary Care Centre, orthopaedic hospital, district hospital and Composite Regional Centre (CRC)(through which rehabilitative services were provided initially) were collected and referral details, if any, to various health institutions. They were visited at their residence and interviewed for the desired information as per proforma by a team comprising of a doctor, physiotherapist, prosthetist and orthotist by making house to house survey in the earthquake areas. An effort for non registered injured victims, if any in the locality, was also made with health or district authorities to trace non registered injured persons Results: The study shows that majority of injured were young adults and adolescent females, and primarily upper extremities, cervical spine and head were injured. The severely injured were shifted within 12-24 hrs to referral hospitals. In 2/3rd of affected families, single member was injured, whereas in 1/3rd at least two were injured. The case fatality rate was <1% because of low prevalence of crush injuries, and quick medical relief/management of the injured. A significant number of seriously injured victims (40%) required rehabilitative services and assistive devices. Probably a quick intervention by medical rehabilitative services, including facility of assistive aids and necessary customised prosthetics and orthotics first time in such disaster, has resulted in high client satisfaction, early restoration of functional and psychological status of the injured victims. Conclusion: A collective effort by various public and private agencies with timely response at referral hospitals to various injuries reduced the frequency and chances of major disabling conditions. Intervention by CRC for providing assistive devices has also significantly helped in bringing back the functional and psychological status of the injured victims. Proper inter-sectorial coordination, better managerial skills, training of community volunteers (NGOs), and professionals on disaster management may further reduce the injury related disability and its impact. There is need of updating medico-surgical disaster management training for health care workers on continuous basis at various levels