Emergency and Disaster Response

Health services capacity to respond to unexpected events, through planning, preparedness, response and recovery, is crucial to ensure continued care to the population during crisis or emergencies. Strengthening the response capacity is essential particularly when faced with the threat of an influenza pandemic. The development and improvement of health facilities’ response plans, as well as the development of protocols and tools, will increase the quality of the emergency response. This section systematizes lessons learned in the Region, as well as presents documents and publications on improving health facilities’ response in emergency situations.

Technical Documents with recommendations about Influenza A(H1N1)
	No.2 - General Recommendations for Clinical Management of Influenza A(H1N1) Infection Cases (2009) 10.p.  No.3 - General Recommendations for the Organization of Health Care Facilities for the care of a A(H1N1) Influenza Cases (2009) 7 p  No.4 - Hand washing and personal protective equipment. Information for Health Care Managers (2009) 9 p  No.5 - The Primary Health Care Strategy and the Response to the Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemic (2009) 6p.  No.6 - Responding to a Second Emergency during an Influenza Epidemic. Recommendations for Health Care Managers. (2009) 4 p.
Preparations for the response to Influenza Pandemic
	Health Services Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza. Facilitator’s Manual   286 p.
	Health Services Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza. Participant’s Manual   186 p.
Safe Hospitals
	OPS. Hospitales Seguros. Una responsabilidad colectiva. Un indicador mundial de reducción de los desastres.  (2005) 34.p
	PAHO. Safe Hospitals. A Collective Responsability. A Global Measure of Disaster Reduction.  31 p.
	World Bank, World Health Organization. orld Disaster Reduction Campaign 2008-2009 “Safe Hospitals” s.f. 4 p.