Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Conflict and Health
Published in: Conflict and Health 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Review

Child health in Syria: recognising the lasting effects of warfare on health

Authors: Delan Devakumar, Marion Birch, Leonard S. Rubenstein, David Osrin, Egbert Sondorp, Jonathan C. K. Wells

Published in: Conflict and Health | Issue 1/2015

Login to get access

Abstract

The war in Syria, now in its fourth year, is one of the bloodiest in recent times. The legacy of war includes damage to the health of children that can last for decades and affect future generations. In this article we discuss the effects of the war on Syria’s children, highlighting the less documented longer-term effects. In addition to their present suffering, these children, and their own children, are likely to face further challenges as a result of the current conflict. This is essential to understand both for effective interventions and for ethical reasons.
Literature
1.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees. UNHCR Antonio Guterres - Written text of speech to the UN Security Counci. New York: UN High Commissioner for Refugees; 2015.
2.
United Nations Security Council: Children and armed conflict. Report of the Secretary-General. In.: United Nations 2014
3.
Oxford Research Group. Stolen futures: The hidden toll of child casualties in Syria. London: Oxford Research Group; 2013.
4.
5.
6.
UNICEF: Under Siege. The devastating impact on children of three years of conflict in Syria. In.; 2014.
7.
Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Food Programme: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to the Syrian Arab Republic. 2013.
8.
Bilukha OO, Jayasekaran D, Burton A, Faender G, King’ori J, Amiri M, et al. Nutritional Status of Women and Child Refugees from Syria — Jordan, April–May 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014;63(29):638–9.PubMed
9.
UNICEF: Joint Nutrition Assessment Syrian Refugees in LEBANON. 2014.
10.
United Nations Human Rights Council: Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. In.: United Nations 2014.
11.
Sen K, Al-Faisal W, AlSaleh Y. Syria: effects of conflict and sanctions on public health. J Public Health. 2013;35(2):195–9.CrossRef
12.
Ben Taleb Z, Bahelah R, Fouad FM, Coutts A, Wilcox M, Maziak W. Syria: health in a country undergoing tragic transition. Int J Public Health. 2015;60 Suppl 1:S63–72.CrossRefPubMed
13.
World Health Organisation: The Syrian Arab Republic. Fact sheet. Emergency Risk and Crisis Management. In.; 2014.
14.
Shamout N. Syria Faces an Imminent Food and Water Crisis. London: Chatham House; 2014.
15.
Syria Integrated Needs Assessment: Syrian Arab Republic. In.; 2013.
16.
Bhutta ZA, Yousafzai AK, Zipursky A. Pediatrics, war, and children. Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care. 2010;40(2):20–35.CrossRefPubMed
17.
Laor N, Wolmer L, Spirman S, Wiener Z. Facing war, terrorism, and disaster: toward a child-oriented comprehensive emergency care system. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2003;12(2):343–61.CrossRefPubMed
18.
International Action Network on Small Arms: Gun Violence: The Global Crisis;. In.; 2008.
19.
de Jong JTVM, Komproe IH, Van Ommeren M, El Masri M, Araya M, Khaled N, et al. Lifetime Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in 4 Postconflict Settings. JAMA. 2001;286(5):555–62.CrossRefPubMed
20.
Summerfield D. The psychological legacy of war and atrocity: the question of long-term and transgenerational effects and the need for a broad view. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1996;184(6):375–7.CrossRefPubMed
21.
Quosh C, Eloul L, Ajlani R. Mental health of refugees and displaced persons in Syria and surrounding countries: a systematic review. Intervention. 2013;11(3):276–94.CrossRef
22.
Save the Children: Hunger in a war zone. The growing crisis behind the Syrian conflict. In.; 2013.
23.
Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, Bhutta ZA, Christian P, de Onis M, et al. Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries. Lancet. 2013;382(9890):427–51.CrossRefPubMed
24.
25.
UNICEF. Machel study 10-year strategic review. New York: Children and conflict in a changing world. In; 2009.
26.
Save the Children: Small hands heavy burden. How the Syria conflict is driving more children into the workforce. In.; 2015.
27.
Grover S. Child soldiers as victims of ‘genocidal forcible transfer’: Darfur and Syria as case examples. The International Journal of Human Rights. 2012;17(3):411–27.CrossRef
28.
Human Rights Watch: “Maybe We Live and Maybe We Die”. Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Groups in Syria. In.; 2014.
29.
Sharma M, Prasain D: Gender dimensions of the people’s war: some reflections on the experiences of rural women. In: Himalayan people’s war: Nepal’s Maoist rebellion. edn. Edited by Hutt M. London Hurst & Co.; 2004: 152–165.
30.
UNICEF: Syria Crisis: Education Interrupted. Global action to rescue the schooling of a generation. In.; 2013.
31.
Save the Children: The Cost of War. Calculating the impact of the collapse of Syria’s education system on Syria’s future. In.; 2015.
32.
33.
Reese Masterson A, Usta J, Gupta J, Ettinger AS. Assessment of reproductive health and violence against women among displaced Syrians in Lebanon. BMC Womens Health. 2014;14:25.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
34.
Huster KM, Patterson N, Schilperoord M, Spiegel P. Cesarean sections among Syrian refugees in Lebanon from December 2012/January 2013 to June 2013: probable causes and recommendations. Yale J Biol Med. 2014;87(3):269–88.PubMedCentralPubMed
35.
36.
37.
Save the Children: State of the World’s Mothers 2014. Saving mothers and children in humanitarian crises. In.; 2014.
38.
39.
40.
Lamb F: Syria: The Siege of Yarmouk. In: Foreign policy journal. 2014
41.
Seckl JR, Holmes MC. Mechanisms of disease: glucocorticoids, their placental metabolism and fetal ‘programming’ of adult pathophysiology. Nat Clin Pract Endocrinol Metab. 2007;3(6):479–88.CrossRefPubMed
42.
Scharf M. Long-term effects of trauma: Psychosocial functioning of the second and third generation of Holocaust survivors. Dev Psychopathol. 2007;19(02):603–22.CrossRefPubMed
43.
Krause S, Williams H, Onyango MA, Sami S, Doedens W, Giga N, et al. Reproductive health services for Syrian refugees in Zaatri Camp and Irbid City, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: an evaluation of the Minimum Initial Services Package. Confl Health. 2015;9(Suppl 1 Taking Stock of Reproductive Health in Humanitarian):S4.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
44.
45.
Woodruff BA, Duffield A. Anthropometric assessment of nutritional status in adolescent populations in humanitarian emergencies. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002;56(11):1108–18.CrossRefPubMed
46.
World Health Organisation. Outbreak Surveillance and Response in Humanitarian Emergencies. WHO Guidelines for EWARN Implementation. Geneva: WHO; 2012.
Metadata
Title
Child health in Syria: recognising the lasting effects of warfare on health
Authors
Delan Devakumar
Marion Birch
Leonard S. Rubenstein
David Osrin
Egbert Sondorp
Jonathan C. K. Wells
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Conflict and Health / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1752-1505
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-015-0061-6

Other articles of this Issue 1/2015

Conflict and Health 1/2015 Go to the issue

Research

Availability and distribution of human resources for provision of comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care in Afghanistan: a cross-sectional study

Debate

Health in the service of state-building in fragile and conflict affected contexts: an additional challenge in the medical-humanitarian environment

Research

Soap is not enough: handwashing practices and knowledge in refugee camps, Maban County, South Sudan

Letter to Editor

Neonatal outcomes of Syrian refugees delivered in a tertiary hospital in Ankara, Turkey

Research article

A tool to improve competence in the management of emergency patients by rural clinic health workers: a pilot assessment on the Thai-Myanmar border

Case study

Ebola in the context of conflict affected states and health systems: case studies of Northern Uganda and Sierra Leone