Armed Conflict and War: What’s A Health Professional to Do?

APHA’s Governing Council adopted a policy last year to guide our organization on the role of public health practitioners, academics and advocates in response to war and armed conflict, and further, to lay a platform for the adoption of future APHA policy statements and advocacy work on specific wars as they arise. The APHA policy paper provides the scientific basis and justification for an acknowledgment that war is one of the most significant threats to health, and articulates the roles that public health professionals can play in preventing war itself, as well as mitigating the public health consequences of war.

Medical students rally to prevent the

start of the Iraq War (Jan 2003)

“ War has profound public health consequences, and is an entirely preventable source of some the world’s worst public health catastrophes.” APHA Policy Statement (2009)

- Patrice Sutton