Impacts of flood on health of Iranian population: Infectious diseases with an emphasis on parasitic infections

BACKGROUND: Outbreaks of infectious diseases are the major concern after flooding. Flood makes people displacement which would be more complicated with inadequate sanitation. Settling in crowded shelters in absence of clean water and inaccessibility to health care services makes people more vulnerable to get infection. This review aimed to discuss about potential undesirable outcomes of flooding occurred in 2019 in Iran. METHODS: A comprehensive search was carried out in databases including PubMed, Google scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, Iran medex, Magiran and SID (Scientific information database) from 2000 to 2019. All original descriptive articles on flood were concerned. Related articles on flood disturbance were considered. Also, publication of red cross society was considered as only reliable reference in evaluation of consequences of flood occurred in 2019 in Iran. RESULTS: Flooding in Iran, was started in March 2019 and lasted to April 2019. Flood affected 31 provinces and 140 rivers burst their banks, and southwestern Iran being hit most severely. According the reports of international federation of red cross society, 3800 cities and villages were affected by the floods with 65,000 destroyed houses and 114,000 houses partially damaged. Also 70 hospitals or health care centers with 1200 schools were damaged along with many infrastructures including 159 main roads and 700 bridges. CONCLUSIONS: Considering 365,000 displaced persons and estimation of mentioned damages, it was one of the greatest natural disaster during the last 20 years. Various risk factors in favor of infectious diseases such as overcrowding, disruption of sewage disposal, poor standards of hygiene, poor nutrition, negligible sanitation and human contact among refugees provide suitable conditions for increased incidence of infectious diseases after flooding and also cause epidemics. More attention is needed to provide hygienic situation for people after natural disasters including flood.