Israel prepares for an exceptional scenario: "System collapse, power outages, and an outbreak of rabies"
The Ministry of Health held, for the first time, a large-scale exercise for a "Super El Niño" scenario, testing the healthcare system's readiness for floods, heavy snow, infrastructure collapse, and a rise in morbidity due to climate change. Participants included representatives from hospitals, HMOs, MDA, fire services, Home Front Command, and the emergency authority. Scenarios examined included power and water outages, road blockages, structural damage, alongside an increase in rabies and West Nile fever cases.
The Ministry of Health held, for the first time, a large-scale exercise for a "Super El Niño" scenario, testing the readiness of the Israeli healthcare system for extreme weather events due to climate change. The exercise focused on scenarios of floods, heavy snow, and strong winds, and their implications for the healthcare system: power and water outages, blocked access routes, structural damage, shutdown of clinics and medical facilities, and difficulty reaching at-risk populations. Participants included representatives from hospitals, HMOs, MDA, fire and rescue services, Home Front Command, the National Emergency Authority, as well as representatives from the Ministries of Energy, National Security, and Welfare. The exercise also examined scenarios where weather events directly affect morbidity, including an increase in cases of rabies, West Nile fever, and other diseases influenced by environmental changes. According to the Ministry of Health, the goal of the exercise was to test not only the initial response to an emergency but also the ability to continue providing medical services over time when some infrastructure is damaged. The exercise was based on staff work by the Emergency and Operations Division and the Public Health Division, and was intended to be part of a broader process of adapting the healthcare system to extreme climate scenarios.