Virginia Murray

UK Health Security Agency

It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the planet, which is seriously affecting the planetary health including human health. Adapting climate change should not only be a slogan, but requires a united, holistic action and a paradigm shift from crisis response to an ambitious and integrated approach immediately. Recognizing the urgent need...

Forced quarantine and nationwide lockdowns have been a primary response by many jurisdictions in their attempt at COVID-19 elimination or containment, yet the associated mental health burden is not fully understood. Using an eight country cross-sectional design, this study investigates the association between COVID-19 induced quarantine and/or isol...

This policy brief analyses the existing gap between science and technology (S&T) and its incorporation into disaster risk management at local levels. It includes a set of key messages highlighting specific issues and barriers that hinder the effective uptake of existing knowledge. It also sets out policy recommendations for enabling easy access to...

Major public health emergencies can provide both the impetus and windows of opportunity to innovate and advance existing health care systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of digital health systems (including digital health data, tools, technologies, and services) in monitoring and combating adverse health effects of...

Behavioural change with societal transformation has been the key processes whereby hand and respiratory hygiene, social distancing and self-isolation that citizens across the world have been asked to implement to respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Is it possible to use such societal transformation approaches to change our behaviour for climat...

In recent years there have been many environmental, chemical, and radiation disasters that have challenged the emergency preparedness of countries around the globe. This chapter on the principles of public health emergency response for acute environmental, chemical, and radiation incidents summarizes the stages of response to emergencies using a ge...

Climate change is a driver for the increasing number of hydrometeorological extreme incidents and emergencies. To try and address these and other issues, the United Nations member states adopted three landmark agreements in 2015: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sustainable De...

It is often necessary to conduct real-time research during health emergencies and other disasters, to inform the response, build the evidence base and identify lessons for strengthening existing strategies and processes for Health EDRM. This chapter sets out key considerations for those planning to undertake research in the field.

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and countries' response measures, have had a globally significant mental health impact. This mental health burden has also been fuelled by an infodemic; an information overload, which includes misinformation and disinformation. Suicide, the worst mental health outcome, is a serious public he...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic and countries’ response measures have had a globally significant mental health impact. This mental health burden has also been fueled by an infodemic: an information overload that includes misinformation and disinformation. Suicide, the worst mental health outcome, is a serious public health problem that can be prev...

This paper analyses science diplomacy efforts to reduce disaster risks and proposes establishing national knowledge exchange centers (KECs) to help individual states adhere to their Sendai Framework goals. KECs are considered to be interconnected globally and work together to promote resilience efforts by facilitating sharing of information and str...

Nearly a year after the classification of the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic, it is clear that different factors have contributed to an increase in psychological disorders, including public health measures that infringe on personal freedoms, growing financial losses, and conflicting messages. This study examined the evolution of psychosocia...

In response to the increasing burden of recent health emergencies and disasters, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners established the WHO thematic platform for health emergency and disaster risk management research network (health EDRM RN) in 2016, with the purposes of promoting global research collaboration among various stakeholde...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 was adopted by United Nations (UN) member states on 18 March 2015, at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Japan. The Sendai Framework went on to be endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015. The Sendai Framework is wide in scope. This paper uses many resources of...

Identified in December 2019 in China, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Pandemics share features that increase fear. While some fear can stimulate preventive health behaviors, extreme fear can lead to adverse psychological and behavioral response. The media play a major rol...

The health risks of a changing climate are immediate and multifaceted. Policies, plans, and programs to reduce climate-related health impacts exist, but multiple barriers hinder the uptake of these strategies, and information remains limited on the factors affecting implementation. Implementation science-a discipline focused on systematically exami...

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought about several features that increased the sense of fear and confusion, such as quarantine and financial losses among other stressors, which may have led to adverse psychosocial outcomes. The influence of such stressors took place within a broader sociocultural context that needs to be c...

This report presents the results of an international scientific and technical process convened by the International Science Council (ISC) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The aim of the study is to define and describe hazards in order to facilitate more effective disaster risk management. The ultimate aim of the process is to...

Background The global burden of mental health conditions is increasing, especially in middle- and low-income countries and frequently the quality of mental health services is lower than the quality of services for other conditions. Disasters may increase this burden through their direct impact or due to secondary stressors, such as the preclusion o...

Partnerships have become a corner stone of contemporary research that recognizes working across disciplines and co-production with intended users as essential to enabling sustainable resilience-building. Furthermore, research that addresses sustainable development challenges brings an urgent need to reflect on the ways that partnerships are support...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 recognizes health at the heart of disaster risk management (DRM) at the global policy level. Five years on, it has catalyzed the rapid development of the field of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health EDRM) by providing a mandate for building partnerships as well as enhancin...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 has been directing global efforts in disaster risk reduction since its adoption in 2015, and its unprecedented emphasis on health has affirmed unequivocally the critical role of health throughout the disaster cycle. The Sendai Framework calls for the strengthening of resilience through the...

This chapter examines two extreme windstorms that have had a profound influence on the severe weather warning services provided to people in the United Kingdom. It exemplifies the two extreme impacts of windstorms to a country surrounded by sea: destruction by direct impact of the extreme winds on buildings, trees, and infrastructure; and destructi...

Introduction As the incidence of cancer and the frequency of extreme weather events rise, disaster mitigation is becoming increasingly relevant to oncology care. Aim To investigate the effect of natural disasters on cancer care and the associated health effects on patients with cancer through the means of a systematic review. Methods Between data...

Introduction Both India and Nepal are prone to a wide range of natural and man-made disasters. Almost 85% of India’s area is vulnerable to one or more hazards, and more than 80% of the total population of Nepal is at risk of natural hazards. In terms of the number of people affected in reported disastrous events, India is in the top 10 and Nepal is...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction's first global target is to “substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower the average per 100 000 global mortality rate in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period 2005–2015”. To measure success against meeting this target, mortality needs to be accurately quantified and...

The WHO Thematic Platform for Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Research Network (TPRN) was established in 2016 in response to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. The TPRN facilitates global collaborative action for improving the scientific evidence base in health emergency and disaster risk management (Health ED...

In October 2018, at Asia Pacific Conference for Disaster Medicine (APCDM), an expert meeting to identify key research needs was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre (WKC)), convening the leading experts from Asia Pacific region, WHO, WHO Thematic Platform for Health Emergency and Disaster R...

Open data strategies are being adopted in disaster-related data particularly because of the need to provide information on global targets and indicators for implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. In all phases of disaster risk management including forecasting, emergency response and post-disaster reconstructio...

In January 2018, three leading European initiatives on climate services (CS) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiated a discussion on how the DRR community could be best served by new and emerging CS. The aim was to identify challenges and opportunities for delivery of effective operational disaster risk management and communication informed by...

As the incidence of cancer and the frequency of extreme weather events rise, disaster mitigation is becoming increasingly relevant to oncology care. In this systematic Review, we aimed to investigate the effect of natural disasters on cancer care and the associated health effects on patients with cancer. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL,...

Introduction: To report on activities aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, national governments will use the Sendai Monitor platform to track progress using a series of indicators that inform seven Global Targets originally agreed in 2015. In February 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted a set of 38 agreed indi...

In a Policy Forum, Cecilia Sorensen and colleagues discuss the implications of climate change for women's health.

Introduction: An all-of-society approach to disaster risk reduction emphasizes inclusion and engagement in preparedness activities. A common recommendation is to promote household preparedness through the preparation of a ‘grab bag’ or ‘disaster kit’, that can be used to shelter-in-place or evacuate. However, there are knowledge gaps related to how...

In April 2017, some of the health impacts of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunamis, and resultant Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster (Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan) were presented at the 19th Congress of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM; Madison, Wisconsin USA) in Toronto, Canada. A panel di...

Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a Chinese national strategy which calls for cooperative economic, political and cultural exchange at the global level along the ancient Silk Road. The overwhelming natural hazards located along the belt and road bring great challenges to the success of BRI. In this framework, a 5-year international program was laun...

It is increasingly necessary to quantify the impacts of climate change on populations, and to quantify the effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Despite growing interest in the health effects of climate change, the relationship between mental health and climate change has received little attention in research or policy. Here, we ou...

To present an evidence-based view to further promote the important role pharmacy professionals can undertake during disasters, across the four stages of disaster health management – Prevention, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (PPRR) and the implementation of the Sendai Framework.

First prize winner: Student Media Arts Competition The World in 2030: What it means for the future of humanity if we ignore disaster risk

An expert workshop was held at the University of Melbourne in July 2017 to consider disaster risk reduction for the health sector under the Sendai Framework. Outcomes were recommendations for alliances and partnerships to link researchers and government across disaster risk reduction and health to inform policy and practice.

INTRODUCTION In January 2011 landslides and floods followed heavy rain in the Mountainous Region of Rio de Janeiro State (“Região Serrana”), in southeastern Brazil. These events led to the largest disaster registered in Brazilian recent history. Few studies addressed the impacts of this disaster on public health, and we found none addressing the im...

Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) emerged as systematic approaches to reduce the impact of climate change on the built environment. However, post 2015 United Nations (UN) disaster management and emergency policies failed to capture the dynamics of hazards, exposure and vulnerability essential for building urban resili...

International agreements must include appropriate indicators, published regularly

The disastrous impact of climate change on urban livelihoods and natural biodiversity systems has long been observed worldwide. Shaped by the type of hazards and degree of exposure, the underlying risks of rapid urbanisation, poor urban governance and socio- economic inequality in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA), exacerbate the sever...

Big data refers to large, complex, potentially linkable data from diverse sources, ranging from the genome and social media, to individual health information and the contributions of citizen science monitoring, to large-scale long-term oceanographic and climate modeling and its processing in innovative and integrated “data mashups.” Over the past f...

The Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes held its 3rd Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster Risk Reduction at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, 19–21 March, 2017. The Global Alliance seeks to contribute to enhancing disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster resilience through the collaborat...

In 2015 four UN landmark agreements were developed: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (hereafter referred to as the Sendai Framework); the agenda related to Financing for Development; the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. These can be regarded as the main guiding documents to galvanise...

The intersection of health and disaster risk reduction (DRR) has emerged in recent years as a field of critical inquiry. Health is recognized as an outcome and a goal of DRR, and the integration of both fields is essential to ensure the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Health Emergency and Disaster Risk...

While seasonal outlooks have been operational for many years, until recently the extended-range timescale referred to as subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) has received little attention. S2S prediction fills the gap between short-range weather prediction and long-range seasonal outlooks. Decisions in a range of sectors are made in this extended-range le...

Study/Objective To review research trends and evidence in the field of Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (H-EDRM), and to provide recommendations for the field moving forward. Background Health is recognized as an outcome and a goal of disaster risk reduction activities, which is acknowledged in international agreements such as the Int...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 underlines the importance of Science and Technology (S&T) and S&T networks for effective disaster risk reduction (DRR). The knowledge of existing S&T networks and their exact role in DRR, however, is limited. This opinion piece initiates a discussion on the role of S&T networks in the imple...

The recent Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) Week Celebration highlighted the growing commitment to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the Philippines. The event was lead by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Health, and saw the participation of...

The first international conference for the post-2015 United Nations landmark agreements (Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, Sustainable Development Goals, and Paris Agreement on Climate Change) was held in January 2016 to discuss the role of science and technology in implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction...

The issues raised by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) during and after disasters are a challenge to equity within local communities, as well as between countries. Individuals with NCDs are particularly vulnerable in disasters and their aftermath given health systems are disrupted. Although welcome progress has been made in taking NCDs and equity int...

The Buncefield depot is one of the largest oil storage and transfer sites in the UK, handling refined petroleum products and additives before distribution to other facilities. On Sunday 11 December 2005, over-filling of tank 912 with unleaded car fuel resulted in spillage of 300 tonnes of petrol around the tank and formation of a vapour cloud. This...

Coordinating planning and response by emergency services linking to public health and local authorities with the relevant governmental agencies is vital to enable appropriate procedures to implement the best strategies to protect the health of the population - one such of concern is the provisions of advice to those exposed to combustion products....

Increasingly practitioners and policy makers working across the globe are recognising the importance of bringing together disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. From studies across 15 Pacific island nations, a key barrier to improving national resilience to disaster risks and climate change impacts has been identified as a lack of c...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2015-2030 is the first of three United Nations (UN) landmark agreements this year (the other two being the Sustainable Development Goals due in September 2015 and the climate change agreements due in December 2015). It represents a step in the direction of global policy coherence with explicit...

Enhance the scientific and technical work on disaster risk reduction and its mobilization through the coordination of existing networks and scientific research institutions at all levels and all regions with the support of the UNISDR Scientific and Technical Advisory Group in order to: strengthen the evidence-base in support of the implementation o...