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Pediatric Disaster Preparation in the Prehospital Setting

  • Disaster Medicine (M Anderson and M Dingeldein, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Recent disaster incidents have shown that pediatric disaster preparedness is more important than ever. Children represent nearly 25% of our population and are one of the most vulnerable groups, making them likely to be victims in disaster incidents. However, in spite of repeated efforts to adequately address the needs of children after disasters, progress for pediatric disaster preparedness has lagged behind efforts to improve general disaster preparedness. Previous disasters have demonstrated that children should be considered as part of the general population when planning occurs. Pediatric expertise and participation in disaster planning and drills would be invaluable in addressing the unique needs of children during these incidents. Furthermore, in order to have a sufficient response to pediatric needs by prehospital providers during a disaster, adequate coordination for pediatric care among emergency medical services systems needs to exist. Recent research has been performed on pediatric disaster triage; pediatric disaster training; pediatric chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) events; pediatric decontamination; and pediatric disaster mental health. This work has advanced the knowledge for this very specialized field. However, further research is necessary to continually improve the quality of care that children receive during and after a disaster incident in the prehospital setting, as the pediatric population will very likely be impacted by disasters to come.

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References and Recommended Reading

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, 11100 Euclid Ave, CEM 517/BHC 5064, Cleveland, 44106, OH, USA

    Jeffrey H. Luk MD, MS, FACEP, FAEMS

  2. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Jeffrey H. Luk MD, MS, FACEP, FAEMS

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  1. Jeffrey H. Luk MD, MS, FACEP, FAEMS
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Correspondence to Jeffrey H. Luk MD, MS, FACEP, FAEMS.

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Jeffrey H. Luk declares that he no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Disaster Medicine

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Luk, J.H. Pediatric Disaster Preparation in the Prehospital Setting. Curr Treat Options Peds 3, 272–282 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40746-017-0096-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40746-017-0096-6

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