Infections are well-known complications in patients following traumatic injuries, frequently leading to high morbidity and mortality. In particular, trauma occurring in disaster settings, both natural and man-made, such as armed conflicts and explosives detonation, results in challenging medical conditions that impede the best management practices. The incidence of invasive fungal infections (IFI) is increasing in trauma patients who lack the typical risk factors like an immune compromised state or others. This narrative review will focus on IFI as a direct complication after natural disasters, wars, and man-made mass destruction with a summary of the available evidence about the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, risk factors, microbiology, and proper management. In this setting, the clinical manifestations of IFI may include skin and soft tissue infections, osteomyelitis, visceral infections, and pneumonia. IFI should be considered in the war inflicted patients who are exposed to unsterile environments or have wounds contaminated with soil and decaying organic matter.

BACKGROUND: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a multifactorial disease in which environmental factors could play a role. The purpose of this scoping review was to map the published literature that assessed the association between the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, which tried to make cities and human settlements safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, and ECC.
METHODS: This scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. In July 2023, a search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus using tailored search terms related to housing, urbanization, waste management practices, and ECC. Studies that solely examined ECC prevalence without reference to SDG11 goals were excluded. Of those that met the inclusion criteria, a summary highlighting the countries and regions where the studies were conducted, the study designs employed, and the findings were done. In addition, the studies were also linked to relevant SDG11 targets.
RESULTS: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria with none from the African Region. Six studies assessed the association between housing and ECC, with findings suggesting that children whose parents owned a house had lower ECC prevalence and severity. Other house related parameters explored were size, number of rooms, cost and building materials used. The only study on the relationship between the prevalence of ECC and waste management modalities at the household showed no statistically significant association. Five studies identified a relationship between urbanization and ECC (urbanization, size, and remoteness of the residential) with results suggesting that there was no significant link between ECC and urbanization in high-income countries contrary to observations in low and middle-income countries. No study assessed the relationship between living in slums, natural disasters and ECC. We identified links between ECC and SDG11.1 and SDG 11.3. The analysis of the findings suggests a plausible link between ECC and SDG11C (Supporting least developed countries to build resilient buildings).
CONCLUSIONS: There are few studies identifying links between ECC and SDG11, with the findings suggesting the possible differences in the impact of urbanization on ECC by country income-level and home ownership as a protective factor from ECC. Further research is needed to explore measures of sustainable cities and their links with ECC within the context of the SDG11.

This systematic review investigated the practices that support and hinder the recovery and healing of communities and the environments within which they live, following climate-related environmental disasters. Although the literature focused on recovery is dominated by interventions aimed at the individual and their mental health, a thematic analysis of thirty-six studies established a range of practices that enhance collective recovery and healing. Four narratives were identified from the findings highlighting key practices: (1) collective and community-led recovery; (2) recognising the criticality of context, place, and identity; (3) adopting a holistic conception of well-being and Country-centred practices; and (4) decolonising and Indigenising the literature. This study details recommendations for research and practice. First Nations\' knowledges and healing practices need to be recognised and harnessed in climate-related environmental disaster recovery. Community-led interventions harness local knowledge, networks, and expertise, which improves the dissemination of resources and enables recovery efforts to be tailored to the specific needs of communities.

The mental health impact of disasters is substantial, with 30-40% of direct disaster victims developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is not yet clear why some people cope well with disaster-related trauma while others experience chronic dysfunction. Prior research on non-disaster trauma suggests that an individual\'s history of traumatic experiences earlier in the life course, prior to the disaster, may be a key factor in explaining variability in psychological responses to disasters. This study evaluated the extent to which pre-disaster trauma predicts PTSD trajectories in a sample of Hurricane Katrina survivors followed for 12 years after the storm. Four PTSD trajectories were identified using latent class growth analysis: Resistant (49.0%), Recovery (29.3%), Delayed-Onset (8.0%), and Chronic-High (13.7%). After adjusting for covariates, pre-Katrina trauma had only a small, positive impact on the probability of long-term, chronic Katrina-specific PTSD, and little effect on the probability of the Resistant and Delayed-Onset trajectories. Higher pre-Katrina trauma exposure moderately decreased the probability of being in the Recovery trajectory, in which Katrina-specific PTSD symptoms are initially high before declining over time. When covariates were added to the model one at a time, the association between pre-Katrina trauma and Chronic-High PTSD was attenuated most by the addition of Katrina-related trauma. Our findings suggest that while pre-disaster trauma exposure does not have a strong direct effect on chronic Katrina-specific PTSD, pre-Katrina trauma may impact PTSD through other factors that affect Katrina-related PTSD, such as by increasing the severity of Katrina-related trauma. These findings have important implications for the development of disaster preparedness strategies to diminish the long-term burden of disaster-related PTSD.

As disasters increase due to climate change, population density, epidemics, and technology, information is needed about postdisaster consequences for people\'s mental health and how stress-related mental disorders affect multiple spheres of life, including labor-market attachment. We tested the causal hypothesis that individuals who developed stress-related mental disorders as a consequence of their disaster exposure experienced subsequent weak labor-market attachment and poor work-related outcomes. We leveraged a natural experiment in an instrumental variables model, studying a 2004 fireworks factory explosion disaster that precipitated the onset of stress-related disorders (posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression) among individuals in the local community (N = 86,726). We measured labor-market outcomes using longitudinal population-level administrative data: sick leave, unemployment benefits, early retirement pension, and income from wages from 2007 to 2010. We found that individuals who developed a stress-related disorder after the disaster were likely to go on sickness benefit, both in the short- and long-term, were likely to use unemployment benefits and to lose wage income in the long term. Stress-related disorders did not increase the likelihood of early retirement. The natural experiment design minimized the possibility that omitted confounders biased these effects of mental health on work outcomes. Addressing the mental health and employment needs of survivors after a traumatic experience may improve their labor-market outcomes and their nations\' economic outputs.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding the association between post-traumatic stress (PTS) and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Three major issues could account for this inconsistency: (1) the lack of information about mental health problems before the disaster, (2) the concept of PTG is still under scrutiny for potentially being an illusionary perception of personal growth and (3) the overlooking of PTS comorbidities as time-dependent confounding factors. To address these issues, we explored the associations of PTS and PTG with trauma-related diseases and examined the association between PTS and PTG using marginal structural models to address time-dependent confounding, considering pre-disaster covariates, among older survivors of the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
METHODS: Seven months before the disaster, the baseline survey was implemented to ask older adults about their health in a city located 80 km west of the epicentre. After the disaster, we implemented follow-up surveys approximately every 3 years to collect information about PTS and comorbidities (depressive symptoms, smoking and drinking). We asked respondents about their PTG in the 2022 survey (n = 1,489 in the five-wave panel data).
RESULTS: PTG was protectively associated with functional disability (coefficient -0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.82, -0.12, P < 0.01) and cognitive decline assessed by trained investigators (coefficient -0.07, 95% CI -0.11, -0.03, P < 0.01) and physicians (coefficient -0.06, 95% CI -0.11, -0.02, P < 0.01), while PTS was not significantly associated with them. Severely affected PTS (binary variable) was associated with higher PTG scores, even after adjusting for depressive symptoms, smoking and drinking as time-dependent confounders (coefficient 0.35, 95% CI 0.24, 0.46, P < 0.01). We also found that an ordinal variable of the PTS score had an inverse U-shaped association with PTG.
CONCLUSIONS: PTG and PTS were differentially associated with functional and cognitive disabilities. Thus, PTG might not simply be a cognitive bias among survivors with severe PTS. The results also indicated that the number of symptoms in PTS had an inverse U-shaped association with PTG. Our findings provided robust support for the theory of PTG, suggesting that moderate levels of psychological struggles (i.e., PTS) are essential for achieving PTG, whereas intense PTS may hinder the attainment of PTG. From a clinical perspective, interventions that encourage social support could be beneficial in achieving PTG by facilitating deliberate rumination.

BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents, after natural and man-made disasters, often exhibit various psychological, emotional, and behavioral issues, showing a range of clinical symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. This review used a network meta-analysis (NMA) approach to compare and rank psychological interventions for PTSD and depression in children and adolescents after exposure to natural and man-made disasters.
METHODS: Randomized studies of psychosocial interventions for PTSD and depression in children and adolescents exposed to natural and man-made disasters were identified. PTSD and depression symptoms at postintervention and 1-12 month follow-up are the outcomes. The standardized mean differences (SMDs) between pairs of interventions at postintervention and follow-up were pooled. Mean effect sizes with 95% credible intervals (CI) were calculated, and the ranking probabilities for all interventions were estimated using the surface under the cumulative ranking curve. Study quality was assessed with version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2).
RESULTS: In total, 26 studies with 4331 participants were included in this NMA. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) (SMD = - 0.67; 95% CI - 1.17 to - 0.17), exposure therapy (ET) (SMD = - 0.66; 95% CI - 1.11 to - 0.22), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (SMD = - 0.62; 95% CI - 0.90 to - 0.34) were significantly more effective for PTSD at postintervention than inactive intervention. EMDR (SMD = - 0.72; 95% CI - 1.11 to - 0.33) and ET (SMD = - 0.62; 95% CI - 0.97 to - 0.27) were associated with a higher reduction in PTSD symptoms at follow-up than inactive intervention. EMDR (SMD = - 0.40; 95% CI - 0.78 to - 0.03) and play therapy (PT) (SMD = - 0.37; 95% CI - 0.62 to - 0.12) were significantly more effective for depression at postintervention than inactive intervention. For all psychological interventions in reducing depression symptoms at follow-up compared with inactive intervention, the differences were not significant.
CONCLUSIONS: EMDR appears to be most effective in reducing PTSD and depression in children and adolescents exposed to natural and man-made disasters. In addition, ET and CBT are potentially effective in reducing PTSD symptoms at postintervention, while PT is beneficial in managing depression symptoms at the treatment endpoint.

Disaster, catastrophe, and cataclysm are some English terminologies that describe the severity of adverse events. Civilians, reporters, and professionals often use these terminologies to communicate and report any event\'s severity. This linguistic method is the most practical way to rapidly reach all levels of local/regional/national, and international stakeholders during disasters. Therefore, disaster terminologies play a significant role in disaster management. However, attaining the actual magnitude of a disaster\'s severity cannot be comprehended simply by using these terminologies because they are used interchangeably. Unfortunately, there is no consistent method to differentiate disaster terminologies from one another. Additionally, no globally accepted standard technique exists to communicate the severity level when disasters strike; one observer\'s \'disaster\' can be another\'s \'catastrophe\'. Hence, a nation\'s ability to manage extreme events is difficult when there are no agreed terminologies among emergency management systems. A standard severity classification system is required to understand, communicate, report, and educate stakeholders. This paper presents perceptions of people about disaster terminologies in different geographical regions, rankings and differences in disaster lexical and lexicon. It explores how people perceive major events (e.g., the Covid-19 pandemic), and proposes a ranking of disaster terminologies to create a severity classification system suitable for global use.

UNASSIGNED: Infectious outbreaks due to disrupted social and environmental conditions after climate change-induced events complicate disasters. This research aimed to determine the contentions of bioclimatic variables and extreme events on the prevalence of the most common Climate-Sensitive Infectious Disease (CSID); Malaria in Iran.
UNASSIGNED: The present narrative systematic review study was conducted on the bioclimatic variable impact on the prevalence of malaria, as a common CSID. The search was conducted in 3 sections: global climate change-related studies, disaster related, and studies that were conducted in Iran. The literature search was focused on papers published in English and Persian from Mar 2000 to Dec 2021, using electronic databases; Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, SID, Magiran, and IranDoc.
UNASSIGNED: Overall, 41 studies met the inclusion criteria. The various types of climatic variables including; Temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and hydrological events including; flood, drought, and cyclones has been reported as a predictor of malaria. The results of studies, inappropriately and often were inconsistent in both Iran and other parts of the world.
UNASSIGNED: Identifying malaria outbreak risks is essential to assess vulnerability, and a starting point to identify where the health system is required to reduce the vulnerability and exposure of the population. The finding of most related studies is not congruent to achieve reliable information, more extensive studies in all climates and regions of the country, by climatic models and high accuracy risk map, using the long period of bioclimatic variables and malaria trend is recommended.

The study of natural disasters is a crucial field that involves analyzing the occurrence, impact, and aftermath of various natural hazards that can cause significant harm to communities and the environment. Efficient waste management and environmental protection require proper classification of waste. Analyzing natural disasters and categorizing waste can be a time-consuming task, and conventional methods often struggle with it. However, a new approach called Visual Geometry Group with Federated Learning (VGG-FL) has been introduced to address these challenges. This methodology uses the golden search optimization (GSO) algorithm for feature selection and leverages VGG with federated learning for feature extraction and classification. To test the effectiveness of this method, a disaster image dataset was used to train the VGG-FL model. The results showed that the VGG-FL model attained exceptional accuracy in discerning and categorizing various disaster scenarios. The waste classification dataset simultaneously trains the VGG-FL model to categorize waste based on its characteristics and potential hazards. To measure the model\'s performance, several evaluation metrics such as accuracy, specificity, precision, F1-score, and recall are utilized to assess the effectiveness of the proposed VGG-FL method. These results are then compared with existing methodologies. The VGG-FL method performs exceptionally well, achieving 98.52% accuracy, 97.48% precision, 97.83% recall, 97.58% F1-score, and 97.12% specificity. These experimental findings demonstrate the efficacy of the VGG-FL method in analyzing natural disasters and classifying waste materials.