This Week's Lancet Special Theme Issue: Violent Conflict and Health

[Eric K. Noji, M.D.]

Violent Conflict and Health

Published January 22, 2010

Executive summary
This special issue on violent conflict and health examines the devastating effects of conflict on human health: direct injury from fighting, indirect morbidity and mortality caused by the breakdown of public health, and the effects on mental health which may affect quality of life, disability, and survival many years after the initial trauma. The special issue assesses the health consequences of violent conflict on civilians and combatants and also discusses wider societal consequences and ethical issues, particularly the routine breaking of the Geneva Conventions.

Issue Comments

Estimating the number of civilian deaths from armed conflicts
Francesco Checchi
Full Text | PDF

Psychiatric problems in medically evacuated service members
J Don Richardson, Jitender Sareen, Jon D Elhai
Full Text | PDF

Domestic and political violence: the Palestinian predicament
Rita Giacaman, Yoke Rabaia, Viet Nguyen-Gillham
Full Text | PDF

Provision of secondary care in fragile state contexts
Fiona Campbell, Linda Doull
Full Text | PDF

Rethinking surgical care in conflict
Kathryn Chu, Miguel Trelles, Nathan Ford
Full Text | PDF

Issue Articles

Patterns of mortality rates in Darfur conflict
Olivier Degomme, Debarati Guha-Sapir
Summary | Full Text | PDF

Diagnoses and factors associated with medical evacuation and return to duty for service members participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom: a prospective cohort study
Steven P Cohen, Charlie Brown, Connie Kurihara, Anthony Plunkett, Conner Nguyen, Scott A Strassels
Summary | Full Text | PDF

Association between exposure to political violence and intimate-partner violence in the occupied Palestinian territory: a cross-sectional study
Cari Jo Clark, Susan A Everson-Rose, Shakira Franco Suglia, Rula Btoush, Alvaro Alonso, Muhammad M Haj-Yahia
Summary | Full Text | PDF


Audio

David Molyneux introduces the themed issue on violent conflict and health.
(mp3, 9:25 mins, 8.62Mb)

Issue Health Policy
Responsibility for protection of medical workers and facilities in armed conflict
Leonard S Rubenstein, Melanie D Bittle
Summary | Full Text | PDF

Issue Viewpoint
Health-care needs of people affected by conflict: future trends and changing frameworks
Paul B Spiegel, Francesco Checchi, Sandro Colombo, Eugene Paik
Full Text | PDF

Related Articles published in The Lancet

Growth of aid and the decline of humanitarianism
The Lancet
Full Text | PDF

The currency of conflict
R MacDonald
Full Text | PDF

Khalif Bile Mohamud: responding to crises and conflict in Pakistan
C Kapp
Full Text | PDF

Unseen scars of conflict
I H Wilson, T H Freer
Full Text | PDF