Parallel Session A 11.30
Guido Martinez
Emergency and Climate Change Coordinator of Environmental Health Department, Undersecretariat of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Chile
I Cárcamo, A Gutiérrez
Ministerial Secretary of Health Biobio Region
A preventive early warning due to adverse weather conditions for the generation and spread of wildfires that began on February 16, 2023 in the Biobío region, Chile, had a tragic outcome with one of the most devastating wildfires for the region and the country. A Regional red alert for wildfires and a constitutional state of exception for catastrophe were declared on February 3 of the same year, both of which correspond to the highest levels of alert for disaster situations in the country. 181,796 hectares were burned in the Biobio region in the period 2023, 7.8 times more than the area affected the previous year and 325% greater than the areas burned on average in the 2014-2023 decade.
As of March 21 of the same year, there were around 134 wildfires in the Biobío region 1,773 homes destroyed (70% of the national homes destroyed), 6,048 people affected (77% of the national people affected) and the unfortunate death of 17 people (65% of the national death people). Health Emergency Operations Center was implemented by the Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Health of the Biobío Region - the agency in charge of regional public health - as a tool to address wildfires response.
The Health Emergency Operations Center is a previously defined meeting point between the different technical areas of the institution whose organization has 3 levels of command: "Authority Command" based in the Regional Ministerial Secretary of Health, "Technical Command" made up of the different technical departments of the institution (such as the departments of epidemiology, water, sanitation and hygiene, mental health, immunizations, communications, finances, among others) and the "Coordination Command" in charge of the Emergency Coordinator. Collect and consolidate information from different technical areas, generate periodic reports and identify priority areas of action that require urgent attention are some of the functions of the Health Emergency Operations Center.
2,067 medical attentions were recorded in public health care network as a result of the wildfires (recorded in around 174 health care facilities in the region): 524 (25%) for respiratory illnesses, 189 (9%) for poisoning caused by gases 189 (9%), 22 (1%) major burns, 72 (3%) chronic patients due to decompensation, 458 (22%) mental health, 272 (13%) skin lesions, 189 (9%) severe trauma, 67 (3%) acute gastroenteritis, 110 (5%) eye trauma, and 164 (8%) other undefined care but on the occasion of the forest fires. Unfortunately, 6 of the 17 deaths in the region occurred in health facilities. All this information was gathered by the Health Emergency Operations Center between February 3 and March 30, 2023.
Likewise, 346 health inspections were recorded with the purpose of verifying the sanitary conditions of the shelters, the supply of drinking water, sewage adequate disposal, waste management, food safety, and nursing homes, among others. In this way, implementing a Health Emergency Operations Center allows for better organization of the response to major disasters and prioritizing the different needs to timely protect the health of the population affected by the wildfires.
About the presenter
Guido Martinez Reyes is a Renewable Natural Resources Engineer from the University of Chile and Master in Environmental Public Health from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Mr. Martinez has worked for more than 18 years in the Environmental Health Department of the Ministry of Health of Chile, where he has performed coordination tasks in the preparation and response to emergencies and disasters under environmental health perspective, participating in the response to earthquakes (such as the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile in February 2010), and also in various volcanic eruptions, landslides, intense rainfall and wildfires. In addition to emergency work, currently he serves as national coordinator of the Plan for Climate Change Mitigation of the Ministry of Health.