Impact of the Pisco-Peru Earthquake of August 15th 2007, on Health Facilities

Abstract eng:
On August 15th 2007, Pisco earthquake with intensity VIII in MM and Magnitude 7.9 Mw on moment scale, affected the cities of Pisco, Ica, Cañete and Lima in the central coast of Peru, South America. Early reports said that the quake caused almost 600 deaths, more than 1,000 people injured, over 36,000 houses destroyed or with strong damages, 8 hospitals with several damages, and 3 hospitals destroyed. The most important health facilities of Pisco, Cañete, Chincha and Ica city were affected by the quake. They suffered strong damages on their structures and others on their non structural elements. Most of the health facilities had to attend partially, with emergency resources and some of them collapsed and close their activities. It is assessed that the total population on the affected area is over 863,000 inhabitants. Most of the strong damages occurred in one-story adobe buildings. The last earthquake of August 15th, demonstrated that this type of material must not be used for essential facilities. According to the last Peruvian seismic code of 2003, adobe bricks are forbidden for hospitals and schools. But not only the adobe buildings collapsed. There were also significant damage in those buildings of masonry and concrete, whose design, quality materials and construction process was very poor. To this must be added the local soil conditions, often without previous studies leading to an efficient design of the foundation. To prevent occurrence of similar losses in the future and ensuring the efficient functioning of health facilities, even under the most adverse situations, is important to incorporate guidelines and safety criteria in studies of pre-investment and investment in health, such as designing minimum safety standards for construction of facilities and for the rehabilitation, renovation, expansion and mitigation of existing buildings, and developing mechanisms and means for verifying compliance with minimum standards in pre-investment studies and investment in health.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket