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العنوان
Implementation of a Plan to Regulate
the Management of Dead Bodies in
Mass Disasters in Egypt
المؤلف
Sherief, Hazem Metwalley
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / Hazem Metwalley Sherief
مشرف / Seham Fouad Abdelaal
مشرف / Magda Mokhtar Ramadan
مشرف / Amany El Sayed Abdelrahman
الموضوع
Management of Dead Bodies, <br>Mass Disasters, Egypt
تاريخ النشر
2011
عدد الصفحات
p. 332
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
الدكتوراه
التخصص
علم الأمراض والطب الشرعي
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2000
مكان الإجازة
جامعة عين شمس - كلية الطب - forensic medicine
الفهرس
Only 14 pages are availabe for public view

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Abstract

A mass disaster is a catastrophic event where there is almost, always
a substantial loss of life as well as damage of property and loss of crops and
livestock. It invariably overwhelms the resources of the community. Egypt has
been the victim of different types of disasters that have had significant, longterm
consequences, particularly among a population with scarce economic
resources.
Death does not end human suffering, especially when death is
sudden, as the result of a disaster. The families of the deceased suffer
additional harm because of the inadequate way that the bodies of the dead
are handled.
The protocols and procedures that are used in regular death
investigations or even multiple death situations are not appropriate for use in
the DVI efforts in a mass-fatality event. These events require special planning
and preparation designed specifically for situations with potentially
thousands of deceased individuals.
The ”Medico-legal Department” has a critical role in standardizing and
guiding the tasks of handling dead bodies (recovery, identification, transfer,
and final disposal), ensuring that legal norms are followed, and guaranteeing
that the dignity of the deceased and their families is respected in accordance
with their cultural values and religious beliefs.
This study aimed to implement a mass disaster contingency plan,
designed and directed to meet the needs of The Department of Forensic
Medicine, Ministry of Justice in Egypt. This plan is concerned mainly with the
proper, efficient and dignified management of dead bodies in mass disaster
situations.
Analysis of ten contemporary Mass Fatality Incidents was conducted,
with special respect to the management and the DVI process. Analysis of the
data collected revealed that a lot of difficulties and problematic issues were
encountered both on the national and international scale.One of the most prominent problems that were met in open disasters
was to establish an accurate manifest list of the missing people, followed by
collection of appropriate and relevant ante-mortem information needed for
forensic identification. Accurate and well directed response planning was
defective in the management of the deceased in incidents of mass fatalities,
both on the national and international levels. A lot of transcription and data
entry problems were also encountered especially in national disasters, a
problem that was aggravated by defective labeling and tagging systems.
Commingling of the remains offered another problem that was
encountered in disasters associated with excessive fragmentation and
putrefaction, as in explosions, aviation accidents and structure collapse. The
last problem was encountered in mega disasters and disasters where a lot of
foreigners were deceased; was international team coordination, with evident
discrepancy in identification methodologies and dealing with local habits and
taboos.
These identified problems were analyzed, and methods of proper
handling and management were addressed as a mass fatality management
plan.
The proposed plan is a four-phase approach one comprising:
mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. By mitigation, it is meant
the application of measures through which disaster is prevented or its
impacts are diminished. “preparedness” refers to the activities whereby the
Medico-legal Department is sensitized to positively respond to a call for help
when disaster strikes; “response” as the application of resources and
emergency procedures to manage the dead bodies of victims of disasters; and
“recovery” involves the measures that are taken, in the long run, to return to
normal the normal functioning state after the immediate impacts of the
disaster have passed, in addition to the lessons learnt from the disasters and
methods to employ them in preparedness for the next disaster.
This research has resulted in key recommendations in a number of
areas for relatively low-cost but practical actions to improve the capacity of
the Medico-legal Department of Medicine to deal with a mass-fatality
situation and to be better prepared to identify victims of a given disaster and
return those individuals to their families as quickly and accurately as possible.