Journal Article > ResearchFull Text
Confl Health. 11 July 2019 (Issue 1)
Vernier L, Cramond V, Hoetjes M, Lenglet AD, Hoare T
Confl Health. 11 July 2019 (Issue 1)
BACKGROUND:
War in Syria has lasted for more than eight years, causing population displacement, collapse of medical and public health services, extensive violence and countless deaths. Since November 2016, military operations in Northeast Syria intensified. In October 2017 a large influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived to Ein Issa camp, Raqqa governate. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assessed the health status of recently arrived IDPs in Ein Issa camp.
METHODS:
MSF carried out a cross-sectional survey using simple random sampling between 8 and 18 November 2017, enrolling households who had arrived to Ein Issa camp since 1 October 2017. A questionnaire collected data on demographics, history of displacement, retrospective one-year mortality, two-week morbidities, non-communicable diseases, exposure to violence in the last year and two-week psychological distress symptoms among all household members as well as vaccination status in children aged 6 to 59 months. The latter were also screened for malnutrition. Prevalence estimates and mortality rates were calculated with their 95% confidence interval. Mortality rates were calculated as the number of deaths/10,000 persons/day using the individual person-day contribution of all household members.
RESULTS:
MSF surveyed 257 households (1482 participants). They reported 31 deaths in the previous year, resulting in a crude mortality rate of 0.56 deaths/10,000 persons/day (95%CI: 0.39-0.80). Conflict-related violence was the most frequently reported cause of death (64.5%). In the previous year, 31.7% (95%CI: 29.4-34.2) of the participants experienced at least one violent episode. The most frequent type of violence reported was witnessing atrocities (floggings, executions or public body displays); 18.9% (95%CI: 17.0-21.0) of the population and 9.8% (95%CI: 7.9-12.0) of the children under 15 years had witnessed such atrocities. In men over 14 years, 15.8% (95%CI: 11.9-20.8) were detained/kidnapped and 11.3% (95%CI: 8.0-15.8) tortured/beaten/attacked. In the two weeks prior to interview, 14.4% (95%CI: 10.6-19.3) of the respondents felt so hopeless that they did not want to carry on living most of the time.
CONCLUSIONS:
High levels of mortality, exposure to violence and psychological distress were reported. These survey results increase understanding of the impact of the conflict on the IDP population in Northeast Syria.
War in Syria has lasted for more than eight years, causing population displacement, collapse of medical and public health services, extensive violence and countless deaths. Since November 2016, military operations in Northeast Syria intensified. In October 2017 a large influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived to Ein Issa camp, Raqqa governate. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assessed the health status of recently arrived IDPs in Ein Issa camp.
METHODS:
MSF carried out a cross-sectional survey using simple random sampling between 8 and 18 November 2017, enrolling households who had arrived to Ein Issa camp since 1 October 2017. A questionnaire collected data on demographics, history of displacement, retrospective one-year mortality, two-week morbidities, non-communicable diseases, exposure to violence in the last year and two-week psychological distress symptoms among all household members as well as vaccination status in children aged 6 to 59 months. The latter were also screened for malnutrition. Prevalence estimates and mortality rates were calculated with their 95% confidence interval. Mortality rates were calculated as the number of deaths/10,000 persons/day using the individual person-day contribution of all household members.
RESULTS:
MSF surveyed 257 households (1482 participants). They reported 31 deaths in the previous year, resulting in a crude mortality rate of 0.56 deaths/10,000 persons/day (95%CI: 0.39-0.80). Conflict-related violence was the most frequently reported cause of death (64.5%). In the previous year, 31.7% (95%CI: 29.4-34.2) of the participants experienced at least one violent episode. The most frequent type of violence reported was witnessing atrocities (floggings, executions or public body displays); 18.9% (95%CI: 17.0-21.0) of the population and 9.8% (95%CI: 7.9-12.0) of the children under 15 years had witnessed such atrocities. In men over 14 years, 15.8% (95%CI: 11.9-20.8) were detained/kidnapped and 11.3% (95%CI: 8.0-15.8) tortured/beaten/attacked. In the two weeks prior to interview, 14.4% (95%CI: 10.6-19.3) of the respondents felt so hopeless that they did not want to carry on living most of the time.
CONCLUSIONS:
High levels of mortality, exposure to violence and psychological distress were reported. These survey results increase understanding of the impact of the conflict on the IDP population in Northeast Syria.
Journal Article > ResearchFull Text
BMC Infect Dis. 26 June 2018; Volume 18 (Issue 1); DOI:10.1186/s12879-018-3194-6
Vernier L, Lenglet AD, Hogema B, Moussa AM, Ariti C, et al.
BMC Infect Dis. 26 June 2018; Volume 18 (Issue 1); DOI:10.1186/s12879-018-3194-6
From September 2016-April 2017, Am Timan, Chad, experienced a large HEV outbreak in an urban setting with a limited impact in terms of morbidity and mortality. To better understand HEV epidemiology in this context, we estimated the seroprevalence of anti-HEV antibodies (IgM and IgG) and assessed the risk factors for recent HEV infections (positive anti-HEV IgM) during this outbreak.
Journal Article > ResearchFull Text
Confl Health. 20 June 2019; Volume 13; 28.; DOI:10.1186/s13031-019-0214-0
OKeeffe J, Vernier L, Cramond V, Majeed S, Carrion Martin AI, et al.
Confl Health. 20 June 2019; Volume 13; 28.; DOI:10.1186/s13031-019-0214-0
BACKGROUND:
In June 2017, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a military operation to retake the city of Raqqa, Syria, from the so-called Islamic State. The city population incurred mass numbers of wounded. In the post-offensive period, the population returned to a city (Raqqa) contaminated with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosive remnants of war (ERWs), resulting in a second wave of wounded patients. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supported a hospital in Tal-Abyad (north of Raqqa) and scaled up operations in response to this crisis. We describe the cohort of blast-wounded cases admitted to this hospital in order help prepare future humanitarian responses.
METHODS:
We retrospectively extracted data from clinical charts in the MSF-supported hospital. We included all new admissions for blast-wounded patients with key data elements documented. We performed comparative analyses from the offensive period (June 6, 2017 to October 17, 2017) and the post-offensive period (October 18, 2017 to March 17, 2018).
RESULTS:
We included 322 blast related injuries. There were more than twice the number of cases with blast injuries in the post-offensive period as the offensive period (225 vs. 97, p = <.001). The offensive period saw a significantly higher proportion of female patients (32.0%, n = 31 vs. 11.1%, n = 25, p < 0.001) and paediatric patients (42.3%, n = 41 vs 24.9%, n = 56, p = 0.002). Blast-injured patients in the post-offensive period included more cases with multiple traumatic injuries (65.8%, n = 148 vs. 39.2%, n = 38, p < 0.001). The treatment of the blast-injured cases in the post-offensive period was more labor intensive with those patients having a higher median number of interventions (2 vs 1, p = <0.001) and higher median number of days in hospital (7 vs 4, p = < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS:
In the wake of the Raqqa offensive, the MSF-supported district hospital received an unpredicted second, larger and more complex wave of blast-wounded cases as the population returned to a city strewn with IEDs and ERWs. These findings indicate the high risk of traumatic injury to the population even after warring factions have vacated conflict zones. Medical humanitarian actors should be prepared for a continued and scaled up response in areas known to be highly contaminated with explosive ordnance.
In June 2017, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a military operation to retake the city of Raqqa, Syria, from the so-called Islamic State. The city population incurred mass numbers of wounded. In the post-offensive period, the population returned to a city (Raqqa) contaminated with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosive remnants of war (ERWs), resulting in a second wave of wounded patients. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supported a hospital in Tal-Abyad (north of Raqqa) and scaled up operations in response to this crisis. We describe the cohort of blast-wounded cases admitted to this hospital in order help prepare future humanitarian responses.
METHODS:
We retrospectively extracted data from clinical charts in the MSF-supported hospital. We included all new admissions for blast-wounded patients with key data elements documented. We performed comparative analyses from the offensive period (June 6, 2017 to October 17, 2017) and the post-offensive period (October 18, 2017 to March 17, 2018).
RESULTS:
We included 322 blast related injuries. There were more than twice the number of cases with blast injuries in the post-offensive period as the offensive period (225 vs. 97, p = <.001). The offensive period saw a significantly higher proportion of female patients (32.0%, n = 31 vs. 11.1%, n = 25, p < 0.001) and paediatric patients (42.3%, n = 41 vs 24.9%, n = 56, p = 0.002). Blast-injured patients in the post-offensive period included more cases with multiple traumatic injuries (65.8%, n = 148 vs. 39.2%, n = 38, p < 0.001). The treatment of the blast-injured cases in the post-offensive period was more labor intensive with those patients having a higher median number of interventions (2 vs 1, p = <0.001) and higher median number of days in hospital (7 vs 4, p = < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS:
In the wake of the Raqqa offensive, the MSF-supported district hospital received an unpredicted second, larger and more complex wave of blast-wounded cases as the population returned to a city strewn with IEDs and ERWs. These findings indicate the high risk of traumatic injury to the population even after warring factions have vacated conflict zones. Medical humanitarian actors should be prepared for a continued and scaled up response in areas known to be highly contaminated with explosive ordnance.
Journal Article > ResearchFull Text
PLOS One. 27 November 2017; Volume 12 (Issue 11); DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0188240
Spina A, Lenglet AD, Beversluis D, de Jong M, Vernier L, et al.
PLOS One. 27 November 2017; Volume 12 (Issue 11); DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0188240
In September 2016, three acutely jaundiced (AJS) pregnant women were admitted to Am Timan Hospital, eastern Chad. We described the outbreak and conducted a case test-negative study to identify risk factors for this genotype of HEV in an acute outbreak setting.
Protocol > Research Protocol
Malnutrition, morbidity and vaccination coverage in Bokoro District, Chad, 2016 (Final Survey) 1613C
Lenglet AD, Vernier L, Monge S, White K, Sang S
1 July 2018
3 OBJECTIVES
3.1 PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
To estimate the impact of an integrated program targeted at preventing malnutrition on children under 5 years of age in Bokoro district.
3.2 SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
- To describe the population in terms of age breakdown, sex, household composition etc.
- To estimate overall mortality rate and under 5 mortality rate
- To estimate the prevalence of severe and global acute malnutrition (SAM and GAM) in the under 5 year age group and in children between 6 and 23 months that are the specific target of MSF prevention activities;
- To estimate the coverage of insecticide treated bednets in the community;
- To estimate the coverage of soap and hygiene practices in the community
- To estimate coverage of plumpydoz (nutritional food) in children between 6 months and 2 years of age and to investigate practices around plumpydoz.
3.1 PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
To estimate the impact of an integrated program targeted at preventing malnutrition on children under 5 years of age in Bokoro district.
3.2 SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
- To describe the population in terms of age breakdown, sex, household composition etc.
- To estimate overall mortality rate and under 5 mortality rate
- To estimate the prevalence of severe and global acute malnutrition (SAM and GAM) in the under 5 year age group and in children between 6 and 23 months that are the specific target of MSF prevention activities;
- To estimate the coverage of insecticide treated bednets in the community;
- To estimate the coverage of soap and hygiene practices in the community
- To estimate coverage of plumpydoz (nutritional food) in children between 6 months and 2 years of age and to investigate practices around plumpydoz.