The Health Sector Response to the 2015 Earthquake in Nepal

In April 2015, Nepal experienced an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale that resulted in deaths, morbidities, and infrastructure damage. In the post-earthquake period, 4 different workshops and a national Lessons Learnt conference were organized to assess the adequacy of the preparedness and response of the health sector. This article summarizes the main conclusions of these discussions relating to leadership, timely search and rescue, referral operations, medical relief to response activities, awareness campaigns, and support from the national and international levels, and epidemiological surveillance. The earthquake response was channeled through rapid response teams that spanned from the community level to the central level via a cluster coordination approach. Overall, the health sector's response was concluded to be largely satisfactory because it focused not only on emergency medical care, but also on the resumption of basic health services and preventive health care (eg, hygiene, risk communication) equally. Post-disaster disease outbreak did not occur because effective surveillance and outbreak monitoring was one of the priority actions. However, services related to birthing centers, neonatal services, and vaccinations were impeded in some rural areas. Some weaknesses in planning, coordination, and management were also noted. The lessons learned can provide the impetus to strengthen future preparedness and response mechanisms. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:543-547)