Disaster, infrastructure damage, and health

Abstract

Natural disasters generate great economic costs, such as loss of human lives, damage to people's health and the loss of goods and infrastructure. In this sense, the case of Chile is particularly interesting, as it is located in the 'Pacific Ring of Fire' and is considered one of the most seismically active countries in the world. Based on the evidence from the 2010 earthquake, an empirical study was carried out using the panel survey 'CASEN Post earthquake 2010' and the panel of mandatory denotification diseases provided by the Ministry of Health between 2008 and 2013. Four models of difference in difference were estimated: The first to determine the effect of the disaster on the number of foodborne diseases, the second evaluates if the incidence of diseases is greater in areas closer to the epicenter, the third if the damage of the home correlates with the incidence of diseases and finally, the fourth is in charge of dealing with possible problems of endogeneity. The results include the causal relationship between the occurrence of the earthquake and the incidence of salmonella, as well as the correlation between housing damage and the incidence of paratyphoid fever, hepatitis A and salmonella. The main focus of the present study was to investigate potential outbreaks of foodborne diseases and generate evidence for the implementation of health public policies.