Disasters have the greatest effect on the most vulnerable groups, especially children. Millions of children worldwide are exposed to disasters both directly and indirectly. The most common problems of children are psychological problems, nutritional problems and infectious diseases at the time of disaster. Children are among the psychologically most vulnerable members of communities affected by disasters because they are not maturity to understand disasters’ effect. The children who exposed to harsh living condition in disasters are faced serious mental problems. Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety affect large numbers of children and contribute to long-term psychological burden. Nutritional problems are the common problems of children in disaster. The ensuring of an adequate and balanced nutrition service is essential for the children who have impressed by disaster. There can be appearing health and nutrition problems for children especially at the age below five due to fall ensuring adequate and balanced nutrition during disasters. It is known that the risk of the communicable disease epidemics increases after disaster in developing countries because of poverty, lack of researches and inadequacy of infrastructure system. Lots of factors such as being in close touch with people so long time, inadequate hygienic behaviors causes to increase risk of communicable diseases among the vulnerable age groups such as children. A well-trained team for protecting the health of the children and resolving the problems to take place needs to be created before the disaster and respond quickly after the disaster.
Key words: disaster, nutrition, psychological, communicable disease, child Article Language: Turkish English
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