It is not possible to enjoy the heartbreaking photos from Ukraine and not sense a deep sense of loss for the very pleased people defending their homeland from this unprovoked attack by the Russian military. And the for a longer time this war unfolds, the much more dire it becomes for civilians and for brave physicians and health care personnel flocking to the area to help save life.
This aggression, layered atop the continue to perilous COVID-19 pandemic, has made an massive humanitarian disaster in Ukraine that our international neighborhood of physicians cannot overlook.
In addition to far more than 3,000 civilian casualties in the initially 6 months of the campaign, the Globe Health Firm (WHO) Surveillance Program for Assaults on Overall health Treatment mentioned that far more than 60 health-related staff and their individuals have been killed or injured in Ukraine considering the fact that early March. Russia’s aggression has also ruined critical health and fitness infrastructure, these kinds of as hospitals and clinics, in and around Ukraine’s most significant towns, producing it unachievable for thousands of individuals to obtain wellness care in a time of desperate require.
Physicians and health employees on the floor in Ukraine have movingly explained their encounters treating patients in spite of extreme shortages of materials and medicine, urgent evacuation warnings, and underneath a consistent risk of assault. A recent JAMA article, “Doctors in Ukraine: Caring for Individuals in the Middle of a War,” as effectively as a JN Mastering™ podcast on the AMA Ed Hub™ on the net platform, “Ukrainian Medical practitioners Share Existing Encounters,” present a closer seem at the horrors unfolding in Ukraine by means of the eyes of Ukrainian medical professionals.
The AMA is outraged by the brutal assault of the Russian army in Ukraine, and we stand with the World Health-related Affiliation and our other worldwide associates in contacting for an fast ceasefire and an conclude to all attacks on health and fitness treatment workers and services. And for even so long this conflict continues, it is crucial that worldwide humanitarian and human rights legislation are upheld and that we safeguard civilians and professional medical staff at all expenses.
As a medical doctor and a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who proudly served our region in the healthcare arena in the world wide war on terror and overseas functions immediately after 9/11, I have experienced the rigorous setting that medical practitioners and professional medical personnel encounter in a war zone.
Battlefield drugs is in contrast to nearly anything else on the world. Doctors and the other members of the wellness treatment team—universally acknowledged as “the medics”—are known as upon and willingly supply care in incredibly hostile environments. And we do so regularly at excellent particular possibility for seemingly endless durations of time, generally giving care to individuals who would attempt us damage whilst caring for them.
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