Health Crisis in Nepal During and After the 2015 Earthquake

Essay

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The term crisis is defined as either any period or event which will direct to a
dangerous and unstable situation impacting the group, an individual, or all of the country. These
are negative changes in the environment or human affairs, especially when they happen suddenly
with no or little warning. During the period and after the time of crisis, an important and difficult
decision must be taken (Acharya, and et. al., 2022). Nepal country is situated in a mountainous
region across India. High altitude location, heavy monsoon rain, and disturbances in tectonic
plates made the environment of Nepal more vulnerable to natural calamities like wind storms,
heavy rain, flood, earthquake, landslides, etc. In 2015, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal.
Crisis-hit destructed many governmental buildings, residential areas, trekking routes, sporting
facilities, health facilities, schools, heritage sites, agricultural land, hydropower plant, etc. The
occurrence of the earthquake was a result of the prolonged build-up of stress because of which
there was a sudden thrust observed along the Indian Plate. Many multi-story buildings were
toppled in the capital city, Kathmandu (Tachibana et. al., 2019). This essay highlights the health
crisis of Nepal during the earthquake and after the earthquake in the year 2015.
MAIN BODY
A Health crisis is a very complex health system or difficult situation which affects
humans in more or one geographic area, it mainly occurred due to natural hazards. On April 25,
2015, a 7.8 earthquake struck afflict Nepal in Asia. It caused about 9000 human beings' death
and too many thousands more were getting injured. More than six lacs houses or structures were
either destroyed or damaged in Kathmandu and other nearby cities. The earthquake occurred in
Nepal at a depth of about 8.2 km with its epicenter about 34 km east to the southeast of Lamjung
(Social capital in a crisis: NGO responses to 2015). According to the report of the united states
geological survey, the quake was caused through libration of built-up stress or an instant thrust,
along the main wrong line where the Indian plate, taking India, is diving slowly below the
Eurasian plate, taking much of Asia and Europe. Kathmandu is established on a block of crust
about 60 km long and 120 km wide, quickly shifting about 3 meters to the south in just 30
seconds. Since an earthquake can bang instantly without any warning, it is an abrupt and violent
shaking of the earth, that occurred through movement between two tectonic plates along a wrong
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line in the crust of the earth (Adhikari, and et. al., 2021). It can result in soil liquefaction,
fissures, ground shaking, landslides, tsunamis, avalanches, and fires.
The degree of harm and destruction caused due to the quakes depends on intensity and
duration, local geology, magnitude, the risk-management action present in the place, industrial
plant, and building materials and designs, and the time of the day that it occurs. Health threats
that occur due to the earthquakes can be diverse as the nature of the environment built (like
urban slums and poor housing), the secondary effects of the earthquake-like landslides and
tsunamis, and the strength of the earthquake. In Nepal, the earthquake crisis of 2015 had
immediate impacts on health involve: trauma-related injuries and death due to the building
destruction or collapse, trauma-related injuries and deaths by the secondary effect of the quake,
such as landslides, and many more (Baral, 2020). In Nepal due to the crisis that occurred in
2015, many medium-term health crises occur which include: (1) Untreated wounds and
secondary infection. (2) Enhanced morbidity and risk of complexity related to childbirth and
pregnancy due to neonatal and interrupted obstetric services. (3) Very high risk of infective
diseases, especially in those areas which are overcrowded. (4) Enhanced morbidity and risk of
issues of chronic illness because of interruption of diagnosis and treatment. (5) Enhanced
psychosocial requirements. (6) very high environmental contamination occurred due to
radiological and chemical agents following industrial infrastructure destruction. The earthquake
in Nepal also damaged the transportation and health care facilities, which disrupted access to
care and health service delivery. Health workers were not able to reach the facilities of health
which were still functional and supplies of medical had been lost due to the earthquake crisis in
Nepal.
Nepal was enhancing trend due to the activities of humans and less sufficient proactive
legislation. The weakest infrastructure found in Nepal became the major cause of damage to
buildings and injuries or death of a human in an earthquake. Nepal earthquakes are evident that
the quake has long-term and immediate impacts on the health of humans (Jang, Lee, S. and Kim,
2020). After the earthquakes, Nepal had to face several problems which show harmful effects on
the health of people such as earth movement and landslides can cause items to shift, fires to start,
and many more due to which drastically changes occur in the surrounding environment. It caused
acute disease, emotional trauma, and physical trauma. Apart from this, it increased the mortality
and morbidity related to infectious and chronic diseases by the impact on the health care system.
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