The horrific cost of armed conflict for individuals, families, communities and nation states cannot be underestimated. According to some estimates, over 90 per cent of the victims of armed conflict are civilians. The catastrophic sophistication of modern weaponry has rendered our global village a potentially very dangerous place. We are all potential victims, regardless where the conflict begins.
The physical costs are easiest to see: the loss of life, limbs, and other horrible, disfiguring injuries. Less visible, but no less damaging, are other kinds of loss, children abruptly orphaned, mothers frantically searching for missing infants, entire villages simply disappearing from the map. And how do we begin to assess the loss experienced by adolescents who know how to use an assault weapon – and kill - even before they fully realize the meaning of life?
There is no health determinant as fundamental as peace. In itself, peace will not ensure health. But, in this era of supremely destructive weapons, if armed conflict erupts in any neighbourhood, other determinants of health fade into the background.
Armed conflict is a health issue. Nurses are at the centre of every armed conflict dealing with the consquences of conflict. This section documents the on-going role of nurses, often putting their own lives at risk, to deal with the wounded.
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Peter Dzumbunu, (not his real name), 29, is a male nurse working at a government referral hospital in Chitungwiza, a dormitory town about 35km south of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. The collapse of health services has left him looking for other options, but not in Zimbabwe.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for an immediate end to hostilities in the Gaza Strip and
urges Israel to ensure immediate provision of fuel and critical
life-saving and trauma care supplies.
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Three expatriate staff members from Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF) were able to join local teams in the Gaza
Strip recently. They describe the tension and difficulties working in
Gaza, with air strikes and bombings making it very difficult for
patients and healthcare personnel to move around.
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Palestinian doctors and nurses are providing health care including
performing surgeries without gloves, local or general anaesthetics,
gauze, sterilized equipment or sufficient oxygen for patients. Medical Aid for Palestine is collecting donations to forward to
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel for the Gaza Emergency medical
campaign.
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Civilians injured by bombings are stuck in their homes without food and water and are unable to seek medical attention, says the director of an Anglican hospital in Gaza City. Nurses working in the hospital are unable to reach their own injured children at home.
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