Wartime neurology: Serving the neediest in an austere environment

The civil war in Syria has been recognized as possibly the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century.1 According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 511,000 people (2.33% of Syria's prewar population of 22 million) have been killed in the war from March 2011 to the present,2 and more than 1.9 million have been injured.3 The public health infrastructure has been decimated, partly because hospitals, health workers, and medical supplies have been targeted, which has rendered a large number of health care facilities nonfunctional.4 The magnitude of morbidity and mortality in this region has overwhelmed the local response system, which has made Syria dependent on foreign aid for medical care. Traditionally, responders to mass casualty events such as this one have included government/military physicians, trauma surgeons, intensivists, and emergency department physicians; however, over the past decade, there has been increasing awareness of the role of the neurologist in humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) missions,5,6 as well as the significant role that neurologists can play by volunteering in low- and middle-income countries.7 The role of neurologists in both natural and man-made disasters is one that the practicing neurologist should be aware of.
Source: Neurology Clinical Practice - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: All Health Services Research, Spinal cord trauma; see Trauma/spinal cord trauma, All Trauma, All global neurology, All epidemiology Editorial Source Type: research