The impact of war on health

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Shanzay Naveed, a 3rd year MBBS student at Allama Iqbal Medical College, is an affiliated member and Assistant Director of PUBSSD at IFMSA. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

War has a catastrophic effect on the health and well being of nations. War destroys communities and families and often disrupts the development of the social and economic fabric of nations.

The effects of war include long-term physical and psychological harm to children and adults, as well as reduction in material and human capital. Death as a result of wars is simply the “tip of the iceberg”.

Other consequences of health include endemic poverty, malnutrition, disability, social decline and psychosocial illness, to mention only a few. Only through a greater understanding of conflicts and the myriads of mental health problems that arise from them, coherent and effective strategies for dealing with such problems can be developed. In addition to the direct consequence, War also indirectly deteriorates the health of the population by causing breakdown of the health system, shortage of medical supplies and displacement of healthcare workers, as well as disruption of food and clean water supplies.

Furthermore, conflict-related insecurity and a lack of free movement also reduce the provision and utilization of health services, with patients hesitating to seek healthcare due to concerns about their safety or potential targeting when traveling to healthcare facilities.

Despite these significant consequences, the health impact of war is still poorly addressed due to the breakdown of health information systems, particularly civil registration systems that record events and causes of death.

Warfare and forced displacement are connected with mortality, disability, and mental health disorders in children. PTSD, anxiety, and depression among children influenced by war are sufficiently demonstrated.

Living in conflict zones and forced displacement can develop the risk for mental health disorders in children. War imposes high general expenses as necessary existing communal divisions broaden, social services deteriorate, local economies collapse, education is disrupted, and educational possibilities decline.

Factors that make children more likely to generate traumatic distress are of academic and clinical interest. Outbreaks of Violence and traumas cause mortality, disability, and imperceptible psychological damage to children.

Living in conflict zones, forced displacement and migration can develop the risk for expansive mental health disorders. Violent conflicts pose a challenge to human civilizations, human health and health systems.

Epidemiological studies indicate that war ranks among the top-ten causes of death worldwide. Populations affected by armed conflict experience severe public health consequences mediated by population displacement, food scarcity, and the collapse of basic health services, which together often give rise to complex humanitarian emergencies.

Armed conflicts can also cause the displacement of people and an increase in infectious diseases.  Future studies should try to differentiate between conflict affected and peaceful areas and look at the conflict attributes that generate positive and negative consequences for the health services.

Perhaps a little more focus is needed on the positive aspects as most of the studies conducted elsewhere portray negative consequences of conflict and ignore the transformation that occurs as a result of conflict.

References:

https://conflictandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1752-1505-4-20

About the author

Shanzay Naveed, a 3rd year MBBS student at Allama Iqbal Medical College, is an affiliated member and Assistant Director of PUBSSD at IFMSA. Her 2 articles have already been published on European Sting, 6 stories on TWS Publications and an article & a story on Brewing Minds. She is in organizing team of AIMC Scientific Conference 2022. She is Volunteer Resource Secretary at VFHAT and Assistant Director of Education and Networking Team of AJRS. She has presented her research on SCICON 2022. She has attended VCON’23 and NGA’23.

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