review · Medicine
Infectious disease outbreaks in conflict zones present major threats to humanitarian efforts and public health due to damaged healthcare infrastructure, security risks, and population displacement. Technological innovations offer potential mechanisms to reinforce disease management in these fragile environments. Specific tools highlighted include enhanced epidemiological surveillance, mobile health (mHealth) systems, genomic sequencing, and monitoring technologies. Deploying these solutions requires addressing significant ethical challenges concerning data privacy, data security, and equitable access. Effective integration relies on policy support that prioritises funding for diagnostic capacity, reliable surveillance infrastructure, cross-sector collaboration, local capacity building, and robust ethical governance frameworks. Together, these measures can bolster disease response during crises and safeguard wider global health security.
Outbreaks in war-torn regions quickly destabilise fragile healthcare networks and cross borders, threatening wider health security. Understanding how digital tools and diagnostic technologies can be deployed despite damaged infrastructure and security risks allows humanitarian organisations, governments, and health workers to respond more safely, rapidly, and effectively to critical health emergencies.
The review identifies practical roles for digital tools, including mHealth platforms, genomic sequencing diagnostics, and surveillance systems for humanitarian and public health bodies operating in crisis settings. While many of these tools exist, deploying them safely in insecure, low-infrastructure conflict environments requires specialised adaptation and strong data privacy safeguards. The abstract does not evaluate specific commercial products or provide readiness levels, indicating an early-stage policy and operational framework.
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Epidemic outbreaks of infectious diseases in conflict zones are complex threats to public health and humanitarian activities that require creativity approaches of reducing their damage. This narrative review focuses on the technology intersection with infectious disease response in conflict zones, and complexity of healthcare infrastructure, population displacement, and security risks. This narrative review explores how conflict-related destruction is harmful towards healthcare systems and the impediments to disease surveillance and response activities. In this regards, the review also considered the contributions of technological innovations, such as the improvement of epidemiological surveillance, mobile health (mHealth) technologies, genomic sequencing, and surveillance technologies, in strengthening infectious disease management in conflict settings. Ethical issues related to data privacy, security and fairness are also covered. By advisement on policy that focuses on investment in surveillance systems, diagnostic capacity, capacity building, collaboration, and even ethical governance, stakeholders can leverage technology to enhance the response to infectious disease in conflict settings and, thus, protect the global health security. This review is full of information for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who are dealing with the issues of infectious disease outbreaks in conflicts worn areas.
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DOI: 10.1097/md.0000000000038834
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