Conflict and health: Building on the role of infrastructure

Armed Violent Conflict and Healthcare-Seeking Behavior for Maternal and Child Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

“…Wars cause health consequences beyond the physical injuries resulting from violence: the destruction of sanitary and energy infrastructure can lead to the spread of water-borne and respiratory diseases [14]. Reduced functioning or restricted access to health facilities may reduce vector control and contribute to the spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases such as Malaria or Dengue fever [15,16].…”

“…Some adverse long-term effects can be directly attributed to the conflict itself: unexploded ordnance continues to pose a threat to lives and livelihoods even decades after a war [12], and injuries sustained during conflicts shorten lives and compromises the health of those affected [13]. Wars cause health consequences beyond the physical injuries resulting from violence: the destruction of sanitary and energy infrastructure can lead to the spread of water-borne and respiratory diseases [14]. Reduced functioning or restricted access to health facilities may reduce vector control and contribute to the spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases such as Malaria or Dengue fever [15,16].…”

Using One Health assessments to leverage endemic disease frameworks for emerging zoonotic disease threats in Libya

“…Prolonged and recurrent instability diminishes a country’s capacity to adequately care for its citizens both in short and long-term tenures through inadequate access to healthcare services and reduction to preventative public health measures [ 13 ]. The nation of Libya has faced ongoing armed conflict and perennial sociopolitical instability for over a decade, severely challenging health service provisions, resulting in limited or redirected funding, insufficiencies in the trained health workforce, and ultimately impacting the country’s ability to adequately prevent, detect and respond to infectious diseases.…”

Terrorism and child mortality

“…Terrorism is "the premeditated use or threat to use violence against noncombatants by individuals or subnational groups to obtain a political objective through the intimidation of a large audience beyond that of the immediate victims"(Gaibulloev & Sandler, 2019, p. 278).2 Furthermore, by highlighting the role of terrorism in child health and mortality, we also add to the larger empirical literature on the socio-economic consequences of terrorism (e.g.,Tavares, 2004;Frey et al, 2007;Gaibulloev & Sandler, 2011;Meierrieks & Gries, 2013;Kim & Albert Kim, 2018;Blasco et al, 2022; for an overview seeGaibulloev & Sandler, 2019).3 Beside its unfavorable direct effects, child mortality may increase as a consequence of large-scale conflict because of the spread of infectious diseases (e.g.,Charchuk et al, 2016;Iqbal & Zorn, 2010), in utero exposure to conflict(Akbulut-Yuksel, 2017;Aparicio Fenoll & González, 2021;Dagnelie et al, 2018), the destruction of health infrastructure and the flight of health workers from conflict-ridden areas (e.g.,Chi et al, 2015;Chukwuma & Ekhator-Mobayode, 2019;McKay, 1998;Price & Bohara, 2013;Sharara & Kanj, 2014), the destruction of sanitation, waste and water treatment(Kirschner & Finaret, 2021), the underfunding of healthcare institutions by the government in times of conflict(Gates et al, 2012;Iqbal, 2006) and reduced food supply (e.g.,Lin, 2022), which, in turn, is expected to correlate with weight loss and stunting(Bendavid et al, 2021;Bundervoet et al, 2009;Dunn, 2018;Kirschner & Finaret, 2021;Wagner et al, 2018Wagner et al, , 2019. See alsoKadir et al (2019) for a literature review on the consequences of armed conflict for child health and development.4 A common definition of armed civil conflict involves at least 25 (or, more conservatively, at least 1000) battle-related deaths per year in a specific country…”

“…3 3 Beside its unfavorable direct effects, child mortality may increase as a consequence of large‐scale conflict because of the spread of infectious diseases (e.g., Charchuk et al., 2016; Iqbal & Zorn, 2010), in utero exposure to conflict (Akbulut‐Yuksel, 2017; Aparicio Fenoll & González, 2021; Dagnelie et al., 2018), the destruction of health infrastructure and the flight of health workers from conflict‐ridden areas (e.g., Chi et al., 2015; Chukwuma & Ekhator‐Mobayode, 2019; McKay, 1998; Price & Bohara, 2013; Sharara & Kanj, 2014), the destruction of sanitation, waste and water treatment (Kirschner & Finaret, 2021), the underfunding of healthcare institutions by the government in times of conflict (Gates et al., 2012; Iqbal, 2006) and reduced food supply (e.g., Lin, 2022), which, in turn, is expected to correlate with weight loss and stunting (Bendavid et al., 2021; Bundervoet et al., 2009; Dunn, 2018; Kirschner & Finaret, 2021; Wagner et al., 2018, 2019). See also Kadir et al.…”