The Social Medicine Portal

Drs. Vic Sidel & Barry Levy: War and Public Health

“War has an enormous and tragic impact-both directly and indirectly-on public health. War accounts for more death and disability than many major diseases combined. It destroys families, communities, and sometimes whole cultures. It directs scarce resources away from health and other human services, and often destroys the infrastructure for these services. It limits-and often totally eliminates-human rights. War leads many people to think that violence is the only way to resolve conflicts, a mindset that contributes to domestic violence, street crime, and many other kids of violence in the world. War contributes to the destruction of the environment. In sum, war threatens large elements of the fabric of our civilization.”

- From the Preface to War and Public Health, edited by Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel, Oxford University Press, 1996 (updated January 2000)

War and Public Health (cited above) is considered the classic introduction to the health impacts of war. We were fortunate to have Drs. Levy and Sidel present at our Social Medicine Rounds on April 8, 2008. Dr. Levy presented an outline of the myriad ways in which war impacts on health. Among these:

• Direct injury to both soldiers and civilians resulting in death, physical injury and mental distress/illness. These effects are often long-lasting, as when people are maimed or crippled.
• Damage to the health care infrastructure.
• Damage to the health-supporting infrastructure (water, electricity, etc.).
• Environmental damage resulting in toxic exposures.
• Creation of refugees and internally displaced persons.
• Violations of human rights: These might include violations of medical neutrality, ethnic cleansing, and torture.
• Diversion of human and financial resources to the war effort.
• Promotion of violence as a way of solving social problems.

Dr. Vic Sidel, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was one of the founders of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in 1961 and was its president in 1987-88. In 1980 he was one of the founders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace, and was its co-president from 1993 to 1998.

Barry S. Levy, M.D., M.P.H., is Immediate Past President of the American Public Health Association. He is also an independent consultant in environmental and occupational health and an Adjunct Professor of Community Health at Tufts University School of Medicine.