Peace, War, and Public Health

How can health be more effective in peace works in Turkey: introducing peace through health

Peace through Health (PtH), developed in practice in the 1980s and conceptualized soon after by international institutions and scholars, has become a field focusing on the unique role of health in making, building and promoting peace. PtH advocates that health professionals, the actors of PtH, should play an active role in any peace process and should, therefore, be trained accordingly. There is, however, no agreed and established training which addresses PtH for health professionals. It is because each particular type of violence, which is the opposite of peace in the Galtungian sense, and the conditions and the geography in which it takes place have different characteristics. This paper attempts to examine the theoretical and practical aspects of PtH in Turkey and to lead the development of systematic training for PtH in the country. Considering that an advanced health system in the country stands out in the international arena, it is necessary to develop interdisciplinary modules as a part of this for the Turkish tertiary curricula.

COVID and Gender: A Narrative Review of the Asia-Pacific Region

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest infectious disease epidemic to affect the human race since the great influenza pandemic of 1918-19 and is close to approaching the number of deaths from the earlier epidemic. A review of available data and the numerous currently available studies on COVID-19 shows that the rate of clinical cases is about 10% greater in females than males in Asia. However, the number of deaths is greater in males than in females. Women are more likely to experience the psychological effects of COVID-19 during and after acute infections. A significant proportion of acute COVID-19 infections continue and their prolonged symptoms have been reported. Further studies are needed, including detailed serology, to measure and monitor the incidence of COVID-19. The pandemic has had a widespread impact on broader societies including shortages of food, lockdowns and isolation. The number of orphans in developing countries has increased. Women have had to bear the major impacts of these community effects. More research is required to develop better vaccines acting against new strains of the virus and to develop systems to distribute vaccines to all people.