2017 Bangladesh landslides: physical rehabilitation perspective

Abstract

Purpose

This report describes the general impact and direct health effects including death and traumatic injuries on populations impacted by the 2017 landslides in the affected hilly and coastal districts in southeastern Bangladesh. The medical response including emergency treatment and rehabilitation provided at pre-hospital and hospital care sites is also described.

Materials and methods

An electronic literature search of appropriate databases was performed to identify relevant articles on landslides in Bangladesh, Southeast Asia, and other developing countries from 1990–2017. Summary landslide impact data was extracted from official government and non-government reports and injury data from selected district and tertiary level hospitals was reviewed.

Results and conclusions

Most fatalities in the 2017 Bangladesh landslides were due to suffocation and asphyxiation from burial. In Rangamati District, 6343 persons with minor injuries were treated in 22 emergency shelters. One hundred fifty-four injuries were treated at Rangamati General Hospital and 12 of the most severely injured persons were referred to regional tertiary Chittagong Medical College Hospital for specialized injury and rehabilitation management. Physical rehabilitation capacity and services in future landslides may be increased by providing rehabilitation technical skills training to responders and augmenting the emergency response with individual rehabilitation specialists and/or teams of rehabilitation professionals.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Landslides may result in significant direct health effects including death and rehabilitation conditions such as severe traumatic physical injuries and less severe musculoskeletal conditions.

• Pre-hospital and hospital emergency medical response systems may lack capacity to adequately manage the surge of rehabilitation conditions in landslides.

• Physical rehabilitation treatment capacity in future landslides may be increased by providing rehabilitation technical skills training to responders and augmenting the emergency response structure with individual rehabilitation specialists and/or teams of rehabilitation professionals.

• Rehabilitation, disability, emergency management, and other stakeholders are advised to employ such training and workforce strategies to reduce rehabilitation-related health effects in Bangladesh and other South-East Asian countries which are heavily impacted by landslides due to seasonal monsoons.

Keywords:

• Bangladesh
• emergency management
• landslide
• monsoon
• physical rehabilitation
• South East Asia

Acknowledgements

We thank Medical Officer Dr. Md Shahidullah and Residential Medical Officer Dr. Sowkoth Akber for providing Rangamati General Hospital (RGH) injury data; Dr. Shahid Talukder (Director RGH; Civil Surgeon Rangamati District), and; Associate Professor Dr. Shawkat Hossain, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for facilitating CMCH injury data and ethical clearance. We also thank the Director General Health Services (DGHS) – Chittagong Division and the Civil Surgeon Office of the Government of Bangladesh. Finally, we kindly acknowledge Drs. Eric Weinstein (CRIMEDIM – Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale) and Jeffrey Franc (Stat59) for manuscript and statistical review, respectively.

Disclosure statement

We declare no financial implications or conflicts of interest related to this study.