If you live in the middle east region or not, you have been affected by the vicious wars happening in it. From Syria, to Libya, Yemen, and other countries where the conflict has risen, people’s life span has dropped to a great extent, according to a new study released today.
According to the researchers, Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt all lost about three months in life expectancy between 2010 and 2013, with deteriorating conditions threatening health gains made over the previous two decades.
The war in Syria, for example is one of the biggest happening in the region. In that beautiful country, which is now destroyed, more than 290,000 people were killed and millions were displaced since March 2011. In this regard, the study reports in the journal “The Lancet Global Health” that the average life expectancy has been cut by six years.
In Syria, the situation was much worse than any other country. The average annual drops in infant deaths of six percent from 2000 to 2010 gave way to an increase of more than nine percent per year between 2010 and 2013.
According to the research, health conditions worsened in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
Lead author Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said that “the Arab uprising has evolved into complex wars,” adding in a statement “Along with population growth and ageing, these ongoing conflicts have dramatically increased the burden of chronic diseases and injuries.”
The fighting has also masked the shift away from communicable diseases such as tuberculosis as the leading cause of premature death, to lifestyle-related conditions such heart disease, diabetes and stroke. For 22 countries in the region, deaths from diabetes rose from 12 to 19 per 100,000 people between 1900 and 2013, the Daily Mail reported, based on the study.
Heart disease became the number one killer in 2013, overtaking diarrhoeal diseases and respiratory infections. “These trends will lead to additional strain on financial and human resources in a region where they are already scarce,” the study cautioned.
Wars are so ugly, and not all their effects are predictable. Now the life span in the Arab region has dropped. After that, it might drop in other regions as well, as studies are showing consequently, be it due to pollution, climate change, air pollution, or other types of toxic wastes pollution causing dangerous diseases.
