This Basic Guide enables professionals and experts working in different health areas to address, in a timely manner, the needs inherent to caring for a displaced or refugee population during a crisis. The Basic Guide is designed as a set of questions to give an idea of the appropriate actions or response principles required for these situations.

"Sanitation" is defined in this guide as all activities involved in proper water supply management and excreta and solid waste disposal.

Mounting a sanitation system in shelters and camps must not only involve the use of simple engineering techniques but consider social and cultural factors at the site of the intervention as well as the costs.

Rodents are mammals of the order Rodentia, with rats and mice belonging to the suborder Myomorpha. Members of the Muridae family are the dominant species in every region of the world, due to their ability to adapt to and exploit new situations. Commensal rats and mice, that is those that live at the expense of humans, invade their dwellings, eat their food, upset their comfort, and frequently transmit diseases to them, belong to this family. Three species of commensal rodents are the most widely distributed: the Norwegian rat, Rattus norvegicus; the roof rat, Rattus rattus; and the common mouse, Mus musculus.