Contrary to the caption below the photo of a Liberian child with an intravenous drip in his scalp,1 children who die of cholera in Monrovia are indeed “felled by violence.”
Civil wars kill more civilians than soldiers. Most of these deaths are not sustained at the front lines, but they are still a direct result of the violence. Wars ruin all the structures of civil society, immunization and health care often being among the first to go. While I was volunteering for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in southern Sudan, many children under our care died violent deaths, mostly from malnutrition, pneumonia and dehydration. Watching a baby rigid with tetanic spasms, I was struck by the thought that this seemed a particularly violent way to die.
As physicians, a privileged and educated elite, we have a duty to be informed about how war affects health and to advocate always for peace.
Madeleine Cole Member, MSF Association Member, Physicians for Global Survival Ottawa, Ont.
Reference
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