Natural and manmade disasters are major causes of premature death, impaired health status, and diminished quality of life even in the developed countries both in technology and in medicine. Disasters also result in an extraordinary increase in economic costs for health of people in the stricken areas.
In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) responded to over 50 emergencies, 28 of those involved complex war and civil strife. Recently adopted resolutions have facilitated WHO to become more involved with humanitarian assistance. WHO activities for the year include helping with other organizations to implement a primary health care programme for 100,000 demobilized soldiers in Mozambique, rehabilitating 40 Ethiopian health centres and hospitals, helping in the resettlement of half a million Eritreans, providing emergency medical assistance to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia, supplying new emergency medical kits to countries affected by disasters, enumerating the emergency health requirements for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tajikistan, helping in the repatriation of Cambodian refugees, continuing its Hedip programme (Health and Development of Displaced Populations) activities in Croatia, Mozambique and Sri Lanka, among others.
Hôpital sans frontière activities for 1993 include equipping, managing and training all nine hospital departments in Somalia, and providing 75 cubic meters worth of hospital equipment and medicines for Sarajevo hospitals, among others.
In 1993, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Italian Red Cross began supporting a 100 bed hospital in Somalia.