Health and Medical Aspects of Disaster Preparedness

The world can be unsettled by natural and man-made events of catastrophic magnitude, and thus physicians must be prepared to participate in the management of disasters. The modern medical response has proved decisive in circumstances where it has been enacted with precision, but it is widely recognized that many populations have suffered inexorably in the face of an inadequate response to cataclysmic events. This book is a compilation of topical essays, the proceedings of a four-year international pilot study on the health and medical aspects of disaster preparedness sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. For the most part, the contributors write authoritatively in areas for which they have earned distinguished reputations. However, this is not always the case, and the book suffers from the shortcomings and overlap generated by a light editorial hand. Reading the book cover to cover, one is able to glean enough conceptual theory to develop