Editorial: Unfortunate, but Timely
- Autores: Michel A. Ibrahim
- Localización: Epidemiologic reviews, ISSN 0193-936X, ISSN-e 1478-6729, Vol 27, 2005, págs. 1-2
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
-
Resumen
When I proposed “Epidemiologic Approaches to Disasters” as the theme for the 2005 issue of Epidemiologic Reviews, Jon Samet, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, remarked that the topic is unfortunate, but timely. We had reviewed most of the submitted and invited papers for the issue and had begun to assemble those that had passed peer review when, on December 26, 2004, the world learned of a disaster of monumental proportions. I remembered Jon's comment: disasters are always unfortunate, but devoting an issue to this topic is indeed timely.
Tsunami is a Japanese word, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as a “long, high, sea wave caused by [an] underwater earthquake.” Time magazine attributed the cause of the disaster to “a massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, where two plates of the earth's crust grind against each other. … About 750 miles of the edge of the Burma plate snapped, forcing a massive displacement of water in the Indian Ocean. … The waves spread in all directions, moving as fast as 500 m.p.h. … The retreat of a tsunami from land can be quick—and just …
