Over 30 college students needed to be taken to hospitals in Jamaica on Monday following the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that jolted the island.
Throughout a press convention on Monday afternoon, the island’s Minister of Well being and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, confirmed that many of the kids who visited the well being services suffered nervousness or panic assaults.
“There have been 14 kids seen on the accident and emergency division on the Spanish City Hospital with episodes of tension. They had been clinically steady, reassured and despatched residence. Two sufferers had been seen on the Linstead Hospital in relation to the quake,” Tufton mentioned.
In Kingston, the Bustamante Hospital for Youngsters, Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and the College Hospital of the West Indies all reported elevated visits of instances involving primarily college students affected by nervousness. Tufton mentioned KPH had one trauma affected person who fell from a tree, whereas the Bustamante Hospital reported accidents in kids from close by main colleges.
“At 3pm, 21 college students had been introduced in from six main colleges, 4 had been admitted for statement, three with gentle head accidents, one post-seizure who’s a identified epileptic affected person; all are clinically steady, and 10 have been discharged to date whereas others are awaiting statement intervals to be accomplished,” Tufton shared.
The minister mentioned “most had been anxious and had no bodily accidents.”
Earthquake triggers nervousness and stress
Tufton mentioned throughout earthquakes and different pure disasters, it’s regular for individuals to expertise trauma, melancholy, nervousness and stress.
“We [the Health Minister] will probably be placing out some advisories from the ministry to determine a number of the signs of that, which embrace problem respiratory, chest and muscle pains, feeling faint, dazed or lightheaded, abdomen aches, feeling of anger, nervousness and so forth,” he suggested.
Tufton additionally urged individuals expertise signs to seek the advice of a health care provider however cautioned that accident and emergency wards, particularly these in city areas are “principally full due to different points.”
Minor harm to well being services
In the meantime, the well being and wellness minister reported {that a} pretty intensive evaluation has been undertaken of the general public well being infrastructure within the aftermath of the tremor.
He mentioned the North Japanese, Western and Southern Regional Well being Authorities haven’t suffered a lot harm to the “arduous infrastructure.”
Majority of the services which were inspected stay intact, apart from a number of; some services in St Thomas had been closed as a precaution.
In St Catherine, there have been a number of incidents; an autoclave fell on the Better Portmore Well being Centre and was broken, there was structural harm on the Waterford and Outdated Harbour well being canters, which require some evaluation, and there have been minor cracks on the Spanish City Hospital, however operations weren’t affected.
