Literature review of the recent 25 years earthquakes in Iran

The earthquakes have caused about 126,000 of deaths in the 20th century in Iran. Iran has long been known as one of the most seismically active areas of the world that there is the possibility of destructive earthquake in near future. Despite the importance of this issue, there has been no a comprehensive study to examine past earthquakes experiences.The use of past experiences in major incidents has a positive effect on the public awareness to respond disasters appropriately.This study aims to review lessons learned in health of the last 25 years of earthquakes in Iran. In this literature review, the information in the field of health searched and extracted from the related databases including Pub Med, Scopus, Google Scholar, Magiran and SID, conference papers, WHO reports and published papers in the last 25 years about earthquakes by keywords of Iran, earthquake and lesson learned. A total of 50 articles were reviewed; of these, 36 ones met the inclusion criteria. After studying the selected papers, the results were coded and presented in 10 groups thematically such as structural strengthening (4 articles), relief/ rescue/ housing (6 articles), response coordination (3 articles), efficient communication system (2 articles), sever physical damage (4 articles), preparation of healthcare unit (3 articles), vulnerable groups (4 articles), infectious diseases (3 articles), psychological support (2 articles), and socioeconomic changes (2 articles). The literature review of articles published in the last 25 years about major earthquakes in Iran showed that the evaluation results of the studies can be beneficial in order to prepare and deal more effectively with future earthquakes.