Regional and Global Impact of War on Healthcare

Abstract

With conflicts and war in parts of the world, the damage to humanity and infrastructure has been humungous and concerning. The impact on healthcare has been severe in the areas of combat and significant even in other parts of the world. It is important to understand the short and long-term healthcare repercussions of war and be in a state of preparedness for handling such crisis.

Keywords: Healthcare, Combat, War, Conflict, Infections, Diseases

Introduction

For an individual, war is loss of innocent lives, disruption of families, fear replacing peaceful existence, large-scale infrastructure destruction and humungous economic loss.¹ There can never be any justifiable cause or need for war and no matter who is the aggressor, everyone suffers. The kind of short-term and long-term impact, a war of any region can have locally and even globally is alarming. Geopolitical dynamics and the urge for power and control, only lead to the common man paying a heavy price.

Healthcare particularly suffers immense damage on multiple fronts regionally in war torn areas but the ripples and often significant impact is felt globally. The aftermath of this impact and the adverse effects of war on health and healthcare last for a long time, sometimes many years after the war is over or ceasefire is declared. With World Health Day this month, on 7^th April, this is a call for awareness and understanding of the impact of conflict on healthcare and enable preparedness for the same.

Regional Impact on Healthcare

Destruction of Healthcare Infrastructure and Resources: Medical services are protected under international law. Yet reports from wars across the world frequently show hospitals being bombed and health workers being attacked. Data from the WHO, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross show an increase in both the frequency and systematic targeting of health care in certain regions.² The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols form the backbone of International Humanitarian Law, protecting health workers, hospitals and patients during armed conflict. These laws were established after the second world war to ensure that, even in times of war, people can access medical care without fear of attack. Any deliberate targeting of medical services is a violation of international law and in some cases, a war crime. Yet attacks on health care continue. Some of the most serious examples have occurred in recent armed conflicts, where hospitals and clinics have been directly targeted, often without consequences for the attackers. The persistence of these attacks raises concerns about whether the issue is weak enforcement of the laws or whether the laws themselves need updating for modern warfare.³ Medical professionals face direct dangers including violence and disability, leading to reduced staff availability.

Shortage of Supplies: Acute shortages of essential medicines, vaccines as well as drugs for long-term chronic care, along with diagnostic and therapeutic medical/laboratory equipment are common, causing high prices and limiting care.⁴ This often leads to panic situations and hoarding, thereby triggering shortage and illicit selling. In many areas access to doctors and healthcare facilities is totally cut off. On the other, demand goes up due to war injuries and disabilities with medical staff and facilities diverted to these emergency situations. Hospitals are overburdened, staff and supplies are short and the overall healthcare foundation easily crumbles.

Rise in Diseases: Displaced populations, broken water and sanitation infrastructure, un-supervised refugee camps and lack of access to vaccination, lead to outbreaks of infectious diseases, sometimes of epidemic proportions.  Lack of access to treatment for chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and lung conditions as well as dialysis or cancer treatment becomes life-threatening leading to rise in acute coronary events, other emergencies, flaring up of conditions and increased mortality. Conflicts cause profound psychological trauma, increasing cases of mental health disorders like depression, anxiety and PTSD among armed forces, civilians as well as healthcare providers. A rise has also been seen in child and sexual abuse causing immense mental trauma. Reduced access to prenatal care and trained birth attendants increases maternal and infant mortality rates, with malnutrition and scarcity of food supplies only worsening the situation. War damage often releases toxic materials, contaminating water and land, leading to many long-term health hazards like rise in lung diseases, gastro-intestinal problems, multi-organ damage and even cancer. ⁵

Global Impact on Healthcare

The impact on healthcare of the countries directly involved in the war is devastating and immense. Even so the ripples of the impact especially on healthcare, is often felt throughout the world even in countries that are not even directly involved in the war.⁶

Revenue Loss: For instance, the recent conflict in West Asia has severely impacted India’s medical tourism sector with major hospitals reporting a 50% to 75% drop in patients from the region within weeks, threatening significant revenue losses especially from key markets like Iran, Iraq and Oman, with top hospitals seeing a sharp decline in international patients.⁷

Medicine Price Hike and Supply Disruption: Global tensions, particularly in the West Asian region are putting pressure and disrupting supply chains, causing higher raw material costs for packaging and medication. The cost of packaging materials like plastic and aluminium has increased, which is likely to inflate drug prices in India. The prices of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and solvents largely imported from China and linked to petrochemicals, have surged by 20-30%.⁸ Drug prices may go up by 30% with wholesale medicine prices already up by 10-15%. Some key input prices like glycerine, have risen by over 60% since December 2025. Pharmaceutical industry bodies such as the Federation of Pharma Entrepreneurs (FOPE), have urged the government’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to permit price increases beyond standard regulations to absorb the higher costs.⁹ The price increases and potential supply issues are not limited to specialised drugs; common and essential medicines are also expected to be affected like paracetamol (price rise by 26%), some antibiotics, metformin and vitamin supplements.

Climate Changes: War and climate change create a dangerous feedback loop, with military activities account for >5% of global emissions and being the fourth largest emitter globally.¹⁰ Bombing of industrial sites and oil refineries, causes major hazardous leaks and fires, that can destroy habitats, carbon sinks and biodiversity. Contamination of air, soil and water with toxins and unexploded ordnance persists for decades, rendering areas uninhabitable. Findings consistently show a significant positive association between greenhouse gas emissions and military conflicts. Extreme or persistent changes in temperature, precipitation, humidity and air pollution associated with climate change caused by wars can, expand the size of emerging infectious diseases (EID) reservoirs, increase host–pathogen and cross-species host contacts to promote transmission or spillover events and degrade the overall health of susceptible host populations leading to new EID outbreaks.¹¹

Global Rise in Infections War, climate change and infectious diseases are intertwined, forming a “syndemic” that worsens health outcomes. Conflict situations, armed or not, have been associated with emergence and transmission of infectious diseases. A systematic review published evidence from January 2000 to October 2023 identified that key factors contributing to disease emergence and transmission in conflict situations included population displacement, disruption of disease control programmes (including reduced surveillance, diagnostic delays and interrupted vaccinations), reduced access by healthcare providers to populations within areas of active conflict, increased population vulnerability, limited access to healthcare services and disruptions in the supply chain of safe water, food and medication. Infectious diseases that have been seen to rise globally during war include HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis, Cholera, Malaria/Dengue, Diphtheria, Measles, Polio, Bacterial Meningitis and now COVID.¹²

Preparedness and Action

Preparing for the healthcare impact of war in 2026 involves a combination of structural, logistical and medical advancements, as hospitals and governments are already being spruced up for high-intensity, large-scale conflicts and significant casualties. Key strategies focus on creating resilient, self-sufficient systems to handle surge capacity, supply chain disruptions and emerging health risks.^13,14

Surge Capacity Planning: Hospitals should not only add beds and care units to their own facility but also create satellite makeshift care facilities to handle increased number of wounded per day and for receiving soldiers and civilians. Deploying mobile health units help provide care in conflict zones and manage displaced populations. Strengthening energy and water security in hospitals is critical for operational continuity. Diversifying supplier bases to avoid dependencies, on single-source dependencies is essential. Building stockpiles of essential medicines, blood products, cold chain equipment and vaccines is essential. The community should be guided on creating personal survival kits with essential medicines to last 7-10 days and keeping medical records, allergies, blood type and treatment history handy and knowing the locations of the nearest safe zones.

Global-Regional Collaboration and Digital Support: Developing collaborative networks between hospitals and regional authorities for efficient patient triage and transfer is the key. Alternative logistics and implementing “air-sea hybrids” to bypass blocked shipping lanes, can be achieved with involvement of global health organisations and support systems. Leveraging digital health tools to maintain care continuity for people trapped or displaced and utilising artificial intelligence to aid in early tracking of disease outbreaks and to help diagnose and treat wounded civilians can be effective measures. Implementing systems to track patients throughout chronic disease management and referral pathway can ensure continuity of care.

Clinical, Trauma and Humanitarian Training: This involves trauma management expertise and training healthcare workers in specialised war-related injury care including treating wounded soldiers and civilians. It is also important to train staff on international humanitarian laws and the principle of treating victims regardless of affiliation.

Infectious Diseases and Public Health Surveillance: Enhancing systems to track and manage infectious diseases, which often rise during conflict due to poor sanitation and displacement. To mitigate these infectious disease risks reported preparedness and response strategies included both disease-specific intervention strategies as well as broader concepts such as the education of conflict-affected populations through infectious disease awareness programmes, investing in and enabling health care in locations with displaced populations, intensifying immunisation campaigns and ensuring political commitment and intersectoral collaborations between governments and international organisations.

Mental Health Services: War causes profound, long-term mental health crises with roughly 1 in 5 people in conflict zones or as refugees, experiencing depression, PTSD or anxiety. Effective care includes developing robust psychosocial support systems to manage the intense psychological trauma experienced by both combatants and civilians with trauma-focused therapy, psychosocial support and community-based, accessible services integrated into humanitarian aid. Women face high risks of sexual violence and caregiving burdens while children exhibit severe developmental regressions, nightmares and learning impairments. Also the continuity of care for people with pre-existing, severe mental health conditions is severely broken. Trauma-Focused Interventions include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), narrative exposure therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).¹⁵

Conclusion

Conflicts and war in the world cause immense damage to humanity and infrastructure, the impact of which on healthcare is not only severe in the areas of combat but is significant even in other parts of the world. Understanding the short and long-term healthcare impact of war and taking preparatory steps and sprucing up resources is the key for handling such crisis.

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