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Developing a Public Health Monitoring System in a War-torn Region: A Field Report From Iraqi Kurdistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2019

Stefania Moramarco Open the ORCID record for Stefania Moramarco [Opens in a new window] ,
Faiq B. Basa ,
Haveen H. Alsilefanee ,
Sivar A. Qadir  and
Leonardo Emberti Gialloreti
Stefania Moramarco*
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
Faiq B. Basa
Affiliation:
Rizgary Hospital, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Haveen H. Alsilefanee
Affiliation:
Directorate of Health, Dohuk, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Sivar A. Qadir
Affiliation:
Directorate of Health, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Leonardo Emberti Gialloreti
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Stefania Moramarco, University of Rome Tor Vergata, via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy (e-mail: stefania.moramarco@gmail.com).
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Abstract

Wars, terrorism, and embargos destroyed facilities and shattered the public health system of Iraq. Today, there is limited documented knowledge about the health situation of the Iraqi population, particularly because health data are not systematically collected. Therefore, the capacity of the health system to address the major health problems of the population is considerably reduced. This report describes the implementation, started in 2015, of an electronic system for epidemiological monitoring and health surveillance, designed to collect and manage health care data in Iraqi Kurdistan. The aim of the program is to network all of the main health centers and hospitals of the region, then of the whole country, and to train medical and administrative staff in the management and analysis of health data. In countries recovering from war, a functioning health monitoring system is essential in guiding the development of appropriate public health interventions, a key instrument to prepare the health system to respond to future emergencies.

Keywords

emergency preparednesshealth-monitoring systemIraqrebuilding public health systemswar and terrorism
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 620 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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