J Korean Soc Emerg Med.
2021 Feb;32(1):49-60.
Epidemiological characteristics of disasters in past Korea based on the concept of mass casualty incidents
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Emergency Medicine, Seoul Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Abstract
Objective
The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of disasters to analyze typical disasters in Korea based on the concept of mass casualty incidents (MCIs).
Methods
We reviewed literature from data sources including the National Emergency Management Agency, the National Police Agency, and other agencies. We analyzed cases of MCIs to investigate their epidemiological characteristics such as natural disasters, types of man-made disasters, incidence, casualties, and mortalities by descriptive methods.
Results
From 1985 to 2012, the incidence of man-made MCIs (4,827,893 cases) with the number of the deceased at 160,908 was higher than that of natural disasters (532 cases) with the number of deceased at 4,129. These included 219 cases (41.0%) of heavy rains with the number of deceased at 2,067 (50.1%), 161 cases (30.1%) of gales with the deceased numbering 64 (1.6%), 58 cases (10.9%) of heavy snowfall with the number of deceased at 673 people (16.3%), 51 cases (9.6%) of typhoon with 1,290 people deceased (31.2%), and 43 other cases (8.1%). Man-made disasters from 1999 to 2011 included 3,055,487 cases (85.7%) of traffic accidents with 89,967 (92.5%) deceased, 496,631 cases (13.9%) of fire with the deceased victims numbering 6,130 (6.3%), and 12,924 cases (0.4%) of maritime disasters with the deceased at 1,150 people (1.2%).
Conclusion
The concept of disasters has to be changed to reflect the contemporary situation in Korea. The epidemiological characteristics of MCIs as conventional disasters revealed that man-made disasters such as traffic accidents, fires, and natural disasters such as heavy rain, snowfall, and gales occur most frequently and result in the most casualties.
