Emergency Shelters and Medical Treatment

Emergency shelters are erected for people whoemergency teams have to be flown in, to provide
are suddenly rendered homeless due to a naturalmedical treatment. The medical-treatment teams
disaster or due to any other cause. The easiestneed medical supplies and facilities to treat the
and fastest emergency shelters that can bepeople. Medical treatment may be required where
setup very fast are tents. International agenciesa disaster has occurred or a disease has spread,
like UNHCR, ICRC, etc have stocks of tentslike the outbreak of bird flu, et cetera. In such
placed all over the world and are set up in case ofcases the entire area is cordoned of, people in the
a natural disaster occurring.area are quarantined and only medical emergency
These tents are air lifted and set up in a safeteams are allowed inside until the emergency is
place in the emergency area. These emergencyover.
shelters become known as tent cities as thereEmergency-shelters and medical-treatment go
can be hundreds of families living in these tenthand in hand wherever emergencies occur. In
cities. Other basic facilities also have to be madefact, the medical treatment units are the first set
available to people who live in emergency shelters.of people who are sent in an emergency area.
Water, food and sanitation are the foremostThey have to fix people who have been injured
requirements of people who migrate toby the emergency.
emergency shelters.Emergency-shelters are temporary shelters that
Other than this, they need clothes, bedding,are setup to provide shelter to people. If the
utensils, and hygiene kits. People may come toemergency is a drought, or war and people are
the emergency shelter without any worldlygoing to stay for longer periods in
possessions and not even a change of clothes oremergency-shelters. Then they may need more
even shoes. People leave their homes because ofthan tents to stay in. In such cases, there are
an emergency and shift to an emergency camp.companies that make prefabricated houses, which
They just escape with their lives when faced withcan be erected fast and provide a better and
an emergency.safer shelter against the elements than tents.
People come to an emergency-because they hadGovernments and international organisations
to flee in panic. A number of people sustainpurchase and setup these emergency shelters.
injuries while escaping and the first thing that theyGovernments of countries that are prone to
need is medical-treatment. To providedisasters like China, keep emergency shelters in
medical-treatment in an emergency you havestock. They also have medical treatment teams
different types of emergency medical-treatmenton standby.
teams. In case of an emergency in a city, townProviding emergency-shelters and medical
or other populated area the paramedics are calledtreatment is what every country has to be
in to provide the first step of medical treatment.prepared for. The level of preparedness cannot
When people flee en-mass from a disaster,be predicted, as emergencies are unpredictable.