Armed conflict as a public health problem

Armed conflict as a public health problem.

Armed conflict between warring states and groups within states have been major causes of ill health and mortality for most of human history. Conflict obviously causes deaths and injuries on the battlefield, but also health consequences from the displacement of populations, the breakdown of health and social services, and the heightened risk of disease transmission. Despite the size of the healt...

Natural disasters, armed conflict, and public health.

Armed violence: a health problem, a public health approach.

At the World Health Assembly in 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared violence "a leading worldwide public health problem" and called for public health strategies to address it. The WHO's call to action, as well as an international political movement that is gaining strength, has helped galvanize health professionals in many countries to employ the tools of public health and their ...

Armed conflict and child health

Armed conflict has a major impact on child health throughout the world. One in six children worldwide lives in an area of armed conflict and civilians are more likely to die than soldiers as a result of the conflict. In stark contrast to the effect on children, the international arms trade results in huge profits for the large corporations involved in producing arms, weapons and munitions. Arme...

Eliminating onchocerciasis as a public health problem.

Onchocerciasis as a disease of public health significance, which affects people of 35 countries in Africa, America and the Arabian Peninsula (Figures 1 and 2) did not receive much attention until after World War II. By then the blindness produced by onchocerciasis had been fairly well described in studies from west and central Africa, and the transmission of Onchocerca volvulus by Simulium flie...