Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control-Online Journal

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Experience of Accepting 111 Patients at the Kumamoto Earthquake: Infection Control and Assessment with 250 Volunteers

Honami NAKANISHI¹⁾³⁾ and Daisuke NOSE²⁾
¹⁾Infection Control Room, Himeno Hospital, ²⁾Medical Office, Himeno Hospital, ³⁾Infection Control Team, Himeno Hospital

Once a large-scale disaster occurs, we need a lot of help to care for many patients. On the day of the Kumamoto earthquake in 2016, we decided to accept the 111 patients, who could not receive treatment in their hospital. By the announcement of the Kumamoto prefectural assembly, 250 volunteers got together on the day. When volunteers participate in clinical practice, we must control the infection very strictly, for both patients and volunteers. There are risks such as contracting a virus or bacteria from the outside and spreading of an infection. Thus, we surveilled the complaint and the infection control. By the surveillance, we could prevent the infection from spreading. The number of occurrences is seven at Day 1. During this period, we kept it 2.5±1.4. The rate of the patients with symptoms was examined separately in the group cured by volunteers or medical staff. As a result, there was no difference between the groups (8.8% vs. 6.9%, p=0.4). Based on this, we concluded that the assessments of risks and surveillance are very useful for volunteers' participation in medical fields even at a disaster.

Key words：disaster medicine, disaster volunteers, clinical practice, risk assessment, syndromic surveillance

e-mail: honami.nakanishi＠himeno.or.jp

Received: November 8, 2017
Accepted: January 11, 2018

33 (2)：75─80,2018