Comparison of medical service systems at Syowa Station with other Antarctic stations: Medical staff, mortality and evacuation

• Main Authors: Giichiro Ohno, Takahiro Miyata
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: National Institute of Polar Research 2000
• Subjects: Geography (General); G1-922; Antarctic; Syowa Station; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.15094/00009114; https://doaj.org/article/b916c4443ffd4c8192dc9d97353532c3

In September of 1998,we sent questions about base medical systems to Antarctic wintering team doctors by facsimile and e-mail and we obtained information about 14 stations of 10 nations. Syowa has two doctors. Most other stations have one. Only one has paramedical workers. Many stations have an operation room but only few operations have been done. There have been 76 deaths : 9% from disease, 72% from accidents and 19% from unknown causes. The major fatal disease was the heart attack, 73% of fatal accident involved airplanes and helicopters. The very low mortality of Syowa may be because effective personnel selection avoids severe disease and there are no severe accidents by intercontinental aircraft. The problem is how JARE can establish an indispensable air-evacuation system safely.