Catastrophic Anachronisms: The Past, Present and Future of Disaster Medicine

Disasters, particularly earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, war-related complications, famine and infectious epidemics, have been a part of recorded human experience. From Pompeii to the Johnston Flood and World War II and the Black Plague to the Spanish Influenza, there have been catastrophic occurrences that will not long be forgotten by either legend or history books. Nevertheless, those occurrences were relatively few and far-between before the mid-twentieth century. Indeed, the nature of disasters has changed since then. From terrorists taking advantage of ‘new technology’ to weather-related events that cause trillions of dollars worth of damages and economic loss, the world has evolved.