Thursday, March 05, 2009

[ePalestine] Palestinian heatlhcare featured in upcoming issue of The Lancet

Dear friends,

Please take a moment and thank The Lancet's Editor, Richard Horton (richard.horton@lancet.com), for featuring the Palestinian heatlhcare issues.

Looking for health in an unhealthy reality,
Sam

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Comment
Mar 05, 2009
The occupied Palestinian territory: peace, justice, and health
Richard Horton
The distances seem short. From Jerusalem to Ramallah is only a few kilometres; from Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip to Rafah in the south, 30 km; from Ramallah to Gaza, 70 km. One can drive the length of the West Bank in just a few hours. Yet for those living outside the occupied Palestinian territory, the distances—to peace and justice—seem impossibly vast. The impression conveyed through western media is of a land in perpetual war, a people drenched in hatred, aggression, and violence.


Comment
Mar 05, 2009
Palestinian refugees outside the occupied Palestinian territory
Guido Sabatinelli, Stefania Pace-Shanklin, Flavia Riccardo, Yousef Shahin
The 1948 Arab–Israeli war not only marked a crucial moment in the history of Palestine, but generated the largest refugee population in the world, thus affecting all its neighbouring countries. Of 4·6 million Palestinians with refugee status, 2·8 million reside outside the occupied Palestinian territory, in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. They are assisted by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees, which is their main health provider and therefore the most accurate source of information on their health status.

Comment
Mar 05, 2009
Lancet Steering Group on the occupied Palestinian territory
Iain Chalmers, Jennifer Leaning, Harry S Shannon, Huda Zurayk
Rita Giacaman (founding director of the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, Birzeit, occupied Palestinian territory) and Richard Horton (Editor, The Lancet) invited us early in 2007 to join them in a steering group for a Series of reports1–5 about health and health services in the occupied Palestinian territory. Who are we and what did we do?

Comment
Mar 05, 2009
Keys to health: justice, sovereignty, and self-determination
Andrea Becker, Katherine Al Ju'beh, Graham Watt
In this Lancet Series on the occupied Palestinian territory,1–5 a team of nearly 40 Palestinian and international academics present evidence both to the scientific community and to the powers that have determined the health status of Palestinians living in the occupied territory of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip.

Comment
Mar 05, 2009
Teaching child health in the occupied Palestinian territory
Tony Waterston, Samia Halileh, Jumana Odeh, Mary Rudolf, Patricia Hamilton
Since 1999, the UK's Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has been working to establish a sustainable teaching programme1 in child health in the occupied Palestinian territory. The aim is to upgrade the knowledge and skills of doctors and nurses who work with children. This Series in The Lancet describes the serious and in some ways intractable health issues in the Palestinian territory.2–6

Comment
Mar 05, 2009
Peace and health in the occupied Palestinian territory
Jimmy Carter
32 years ago, one of my highest priorities as President of the USA was to bring peace to the Middle East. For 13 days, I led intense negotiations between Israel and Egypt, resulting in the Camp David Accords in 1978.1 There were two agreements, ratified by an overwhelming vote of the Israeli Knesset. One was a peace treaty that was signed 6 months later between Egypt and Israel, and which has been meticulously honoured by both sides. The other was a commitment by Israel to withdraw its political and military forces from Palestinian territory and grant the Palestinians full autonomy over their own affairs.

Series
Mar 05, 2009
Health status and health services in the occupied Palestinian territory
Rita Giacaman, Rana Khatib, Luay Shabaneh, Asad Ramlawi, Belgacem Sabri, Guido Sabatinelli, Marwan Khawaja, Tony Laurance
We describe the demographic characteristics, health status, and health services of the Palestinian population living in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, and the way they have been modified by 60 years of continuing war conditions and 40 years of Israeli military occupation. Although health, literacy, and education currently have a higher standard in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory than they have in several Arab countries, 52% of families (40% in the West Bank and 74% in the Gaza Strip) were living below the poverty line of US$3·15 per person per day in 2007.

Series
Mar 05, 2009
Maternal and child health in the occupied Palestinian territory
Hanan F Abdul Rahim, Laura Wick, Samia Halileh, Sahar Hassan-Bitar, Hafedh Chekir, Graham Watt, Marwan Khawaja
The Countdown to 2015 intervention coverage indicators in the occupied Palestinian territory are similar to those of other Arab countries, although there are gaps in continuity and quality of services across the continuum of the perinatal period. Since the mid 1990s, however, access to maternity facilities has become increasingly unpredictable. Mortality rates for infants (age ≤1 year) and children younger than 5 years have changed little, and the prevalence of stunting in children has increased.

Series
Mar 05, 2009
Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and cancer in the occupied Palestinian territory
Abdullatif Husseini, Niveen ME Abu-Rmeileh, Nahed Mikki, Tarik M Ramahi, Heidar Abu Ghosh, Nadim Barghuthi, Mohammad Khalili, Espen Bjertness, Gerd Holmboe-Ottesen, Jak Jervell
Heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cancer are the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the occupied Palestinian territory, resulting in a high direct cost of care, high indirect cost in loss of production, and much societal stress. The rates of the classic risk factors for atherosclerotic disease—namely, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, tobacco smoking, and dyslipidaemia—are high and similar to those in neighbouring countries. The urbanisation and continuing nutritional change from a healthy Mediterranean diet to an increasingly western-style diet is associated with reduced activity, obesity, and a loss of the protective effect of the traditional diet.

Series
Mar 05, 2009
Health as human security in the occupied Palestinian territory
Rajaie Batniji, Yoke Rabaia, Viet Nguyen–Gillham, Rita Giacaman, Eyad Sarraj, Raija–Leena Punamaki, Hana Saab, Will Boyce
We describe the threats to survival, development, and wellbeing in the occupied Palestinian territory using human security as a framework. Palestinian security has deteriorated rapidly since 2000. More than 6000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military, with more than 1300 killed in the Gaza Strip during 22 days of aerial and ground attacks ending in January, 2009. Israeli destruction and control of infrastructure has severely restricted fuel supplies and access to water and sanitation.

Series
Mar 05, 2009
The health-care system: an assessment and reform agenda
Awad Mataria, Rana Khatib, Cam Donaldson, Thomas Bossert, David J Hunter, Fahed Alsayed, Jean-Paul Moatti




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