Preparedness for humanitarian crises needs to be improved

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Abstract
Effect of conflict in Eastern Mediterranean In the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean region, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia, and Sudan are currently struggling to deal with prolonged conflicts. The United Nations emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, described the conflicts in Somalia, Sudan, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory as the three most challenging current humanitarian situations (box).5 They have affected 10 million people, of whom 6.5 million have been displaced from their homes and around 200 000 have died.6 The long history of ethnic, religious, and geographic tensions in these areas make it unlikely that the health and humanitarian problems are going to decrease. Poor and marginalised members of society are most often exposed to disasters and least capable of coping when they occur.7 The infrastructure of cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Cairo, Tehran, Sanaa, Kabul, Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Khartoum, and Baghdad can no longer cope with the growing populations. Hundreds of thousands of people live in slums or low income housing. These homes are relatively unsafe because they are of poor structural quality or in high risk locations, which is likely to compound future emergencies.