"In return, we have agreed to halt our legal challenge to the NHS proposals as all but the most complex emergencies will continue to be treated at Charing Cross.
"Unlike most complex emergencies that happen in the tropics, this earthquake occurred where the winter weather gets very cold indeed," says Bent Kjellerup, UNICEF Project Officer for Water and Sanitation, adding that this means there are limited standard practices for hot water provision in emergency situations.
Hot water to encourage washing in winter "Unlike most complex emergencies that happen in the tropics, this earthquake occurred where the winter weather gets very cold indeed," says Bent Kjellerup, UNICEF Project Officer for Water and Sanitation, adding that this means there are limited standard practices for hot water provision in emergency situations.
According to UNICEF, the crisis in Darfur continues to be the world's most complex emergency, characterized by widespread insecurity, population displacement and dependence on humanitarian aid.
Medical surgical emergency departments are at an intermediate level, referring the most complex patients to polyvalent emergency services and receiving some cases from basic EDs.
The British charity Save the Children, which has described the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti as the most challenging and complex emergency in its history, said last week: "Most people have little access to safe shelter, drinking water, electricity or healthcare".
This description, and the areas where data is missing, highlight both the importance of collecting data in future epidemics, difficulties in documenting outbreaks occurring in complex emergencies and most importantly, the need to assure that minimal requirements are met.
Aid agencies, such as Save the Children, have made no bones about the scale of the challenge, describing it in a report last week as the "most challenging and complex emergency" in the charity's history.
The most important immediate causes of deaths in complex emergencies are acute respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, maternal and neonatal morbidity, tuberculosis, and vector-borne diseases such as malaria.
"This context helps explain why this emergency is probably the most complex in history, more than the tsunami, more than the Pakistan earthquake" of 2005.
Here are the pieces by Taub and Farrow that were honored: "The Emergency": Around Lake Chad, the world most complex humanitarian disaster is unfolding.
