Wars and other current challenges for health and life

Abstract

Sixteen years ago, Social Medicine published a special issue devoted to the topic of War and Health. This issue was organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the approval of the Report on the Social Determinants of Health. The editorial for this special issue was written by Victor W. Sidel and Barry S. Levy,1 entitled: The Health Consequences of the Diversion of Resources to War and its Preparation. Although the text, published in September 2009, detailed the scandalous military spending of countries and the resulting reduction in resources available for health and for the satisfaction of other economic and social rights, the editorial mentioned with some optimism that the United States military budget had been reduced and that this fact could mark a downward trend. However, less than fifteen years later, we see that the world is in a new and frenetic arms race that not only threatens to reduce budgets for health, education, and humanitarian aid to minimal amounts, but also fuels several armed conflicts that have generated political tension that places the planet at extremely high risk of a much larger military conflagration.