Epidemiologic Methods for Relief Operations

Emergency Refugee Health Care: A Chronicle of Experience in the Khmer Refugee-Assistance Operation 1979-1980. Atlanta, GA: CDC, Department of Health and Human Services, 1984. Editors-in-Chief: Donald T. Allegra, Phillip Nieburg, Magnus Grabe

CAUTION: This document was published by CDC in 1984 to record the experience and lessons learned from applying epidemiologic principles to humanitarian relief efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The goal was to preserve CDC's institutional memory for future generations of CDC responders to natural and manmade disasters. Although the epidemiologic techniques and general principles remain valid, the usage described of certain drugs, vaccines, and other specific health-related strategies may be obsolete. For example, consult more recent guidelines for drug-resistant malaria, antibiotic usage, presumptive treatments, and vaccination technologies (auto-disable syringes are now preferred; multi-use-nozzle jet injectors are discouraged).

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