Centre asks NE states to campaign on NDMG-MPMCM

Agartala, Nov 15 (UNI) The Centre has asked the Northeastern states to launch campaign on National Disaster Management Guidelines Medical Preparedness and Mass Casualty Management (NDMG-MPMCM), drafted by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Tripura disaster management officials said here today that the NDMA had brought out a comprehensive document on the issue and the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry had been assigned the legislative capacity for a number of subjects, including the medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy professions and education, mental health, standards for drugs, prevention of food adulteration, epidemic prevention and control, among others.

The NDMA was asked to prepare a vulnerability and risk atlas for the country, following numerous disasters in the past, including the Super Cyclone in Orissa in October 1999, the Bhuj earthquake and Tsunami, which revealed the mass casualty potential of natural disasters.

It had also studied the factors which caused man-made disasters associated with industrialisation, transportation and environmental degradation along with the new facets of terrorist attacks using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, were considered in the study, officials stated.

''We need to adopt multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach for prevention/mitigation strategies so as to develop capacities to improve response. The NDMA has observed some critical gaps in managing mass casualties and issued fresh guidelines for the disaster prone regions,'' they added.

Besides, the Centre had been working on the project of the National Highway Trauma Care Project with its scale and reach intending to cover the entire Golden Quadrilateral and north-south-east-west corridors for trauma care, which envisage strengthening about 200 hospitals from basic trauma care to advanced tertiary care all networked with pre-hospital care ambulances to provide care during transit and hospitalise within the golden hour.

The NE's geo-climatic conditions made it vulnerable to natural disasters, including floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and outbreak of diseases, leading to a sizable number of human casualties, officials said, adding that the various man-made disasters and peripheral emergencies also accounted for large number of mortalities and morbidities.

UNI