Health planning in action: Rwanda crisis

Abstract

In this chapter, the concepts of medical intervention in the event of a catastrophe or a conflict will be examined and analyzed. A convenient starting point, therefore, is an understanding of the terms involved. A medical intervention is an action taken by an agency in order to remedy a medical shortfall or problem. As such it does not necessarily have to be purely clinical in nature. Rather, it must simply address a medical requirement in the target population. Its delivery may be undertaken by a variety of nonmedical agencies such as food-relief programs. Similarly, a catastrophe or a conflict is an event which has produced an inability to cope with the extra humanitarian demands consequent upon the incident. Such a mismatch between demand and supply may be temporary, as in earthquake recovery in developed nations like Japan, or be long term and seemingly intractable, as in many cases of internal conflict in Africa. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009.