World Health Organization
Geneva
1999
The World Health Organization was established in 1948 as a
specialized agency of the United Nations serving as the directing and
coordinating authority for international health matters and public health. One
of WHO’s constitutional functions is to provide objective and reliable
information and advice in the field of human health, a responsibility that it
fulfils in part through its extensive programme of publications.
The Organization seeks through its publications to support
national health strategies and address the most pressing public health concerns
of populations around the world. To respond to the needs of Member States at all
levels of development, WHO publishes practical manuals, handbooks and training
material for specific categories of health workers; internationally applicable
guidelines and standards; reviews and analyses of health policies, programmes
and research; and state-of-the-art consensus reports that offer technical advice
and recommendations for decision-makers. These books are closely tied to the
Organization’s priority activities, encompassing disease prevention and
control, the development of equitable health systems based on primary health
care, and health promotion for individuals and communities. Progress towards
better health for all also demands the global dissemination and exchange of
information that draws on the knowledge and experience of all WHO’s Member
countries and the collaboration of world leaders in public health and the
biomedical sciences.
To ensure the widest possible availability of authoritative
information and guidance on health matters, WHO secures the broad international
distribution of its publications and encourages their translation and
adaptation. By helping to promote and protect health and prevent and control
disease throughout the world, WHO’s books contribute to achieving the
Organization’s principal objective - the attainment by all people of the
highest possible level of health.
WHO Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Rapid health assessment protocols for emergencies.
1. Epidemiologic methods 2. Emergencies 3. Disease outbreaks 4.
Health services needs and demand 5. Health status 6. Guidelines
ISBN 92 4 154515 1
(NLM Classification: WA 950)
The World Health Organization welcomes requests for permission
to reproduce or translate its publications, in part or in full. Applications and
enquiries should be addressed to the Office of Publications, World Health
Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, which will be glad to provide the latest
information on any changes made to the text, plans for new editions, and
reprints and translations already available.
© World Health Organization 1999
Publications of the World Health Organization enjoy copyright
protection in accordance with the provisions of Protocol 2 of the Universal
Copyright Convention. All rights reserved.
The designations employed and the presentation of the material
in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the
part of the Secretariat of the World Health Organization concerning the legal
status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or
concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The mention of specific companies or of certain
manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or
recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a
similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names
of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters.
Typeset in Hong Kong
Printed in England
97/11693 - Best
Set/Clays -
7500
