Disaster Preparedness and Medical Response—It's a Global Responsibility

[...]the WMA continually advocates for people at significant risk from illness caused by, for example, infection with human immunodeficiency virus, malaria, and effects of tobacco use. Factors including population vulnerability and globalization continue to increase the impact of these calamities, including commonplace traffic accidents to major airplane crashes, epidemics, nuclear radiation contamination, off-shore oil spills, floods, forest fires, hurricanes and earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, collapse of buildings, changes in climate, overpopulation, and other events. To work with national and local governments to establish or update regional databases and geographic mapping of information on health system assets, capacities, capabilities, and logistics to assist medical response efforts, domestically and worldwide, when needed.