Gilbert Mads
Emergency Medical Services, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway; Anesthesia and Critical Care Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
Lancet. 2018 Feb 21;391 Suppl 2:S24. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30390-8.
The atrocities in Syria have been covered in the four general medical weekly journals in the USA and the UK. Medical journal articles addressing political determinants of public health have rightly described and criticised the international community's failure to enforce humanitarian law while urging global bodies of power to ensure protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure and medical services. Discussions of the political influences on health of people in the occupied Palestinian territory (West Bank and Gaza Strip) seem to be considered politically out-of-bounds by some medical journals. This study used a keyword-based search to explore patterns of publication about the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel by four large US and European medical journals.
The four highest ranked, peer-reviewed, international medical journals were searched: The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), The Lancet, and The British Medical Journal (BMJ). Searches were conducted between Sept 1 and Sept 6, using each journal's search engine with the keywords "Gaza", "West Bank" and the stems "Palestin*" and "Israel*" in all fields for the period Jan 1, 1990, to Sept 6, 2016. News and commentary articles were included in the findings.
The searches found the term "Palestin*" in 49 articles from the two US journals (32 in JAMA; 17 in NEJM) and 694 articles in the two UK journals (236 in The Lancet; 458 in BMJ). "Israel*" was found in 840 articles in US journals (386 in JAMA; 454 in NEJM) and in 2972 articles in UK journals (1388 in The Lancet; 1584 in BMJ). "West Bank" was found in nine articles in US journals (nine in JAMA; none in NEJM) and in 297 articles from the UK (211 in The Lancet; 86 in BMJ). "Gaza" was found in 18 articles in US journals (15 from JAMA; three from NEJM) and in 487 articles in UK journals (324 in The Lancet; 166 in BMJ).
Compared with the two US-based medical journals, the UK journals published substantially more articles with the relevant keywords and discussed political responsibilities for the dire health conditions experienced by the Palestinian people. The journals included in this study differed in the extent to which they featured news and comments, which might have affected the number of published articles. Because there is a larger research establishment in Israel than in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the keyword "Israel" might have been included in a larger number of clinical and biomedical scientific papers. Medical leaders, including journal editors, have a responsibility to participate in the discussion around this preventable situation, which could have long-lasting public health consequences.
None.
叙利亚的暴行已在美国和英国的四家综合性医学周刊上有所报道。探讨公共卫生政治决定因素的医学期刊文章正确地描述并批评了国际社会未能执行人道主义法，同时敦促全球权力机构确保平民、民用基础设施和医疗服务得到保护。一些医学期刊似乎认为，讨论被占领巴勒斯坦领土（约旦河西岸和加沙地带）人民健康所受的政治影响在政治上是越界行为。本研究通过基于关键词的搜索，探究了美国和欧洲四家大型医学期刊关于被占领巴勒斯坦领土和以色列的发表模式。
检索了排名最高的四家同行评议国际医学期刊：《美国医学会杂志》（JAMA）、《新英格兰医学杂志》（NEJM）、《柳叶刀》和《英国医学杂志》（BMJ）。于9月1日至9月6日进行检索，使用各期刊的搜索引擎，在1990年1月1日至2016年9月6日期间的所有字段中输入关键词“加沙”“约旦河西岸”以及词干“Palestin*”和“Israel*”。研究结果纳入了新闻和评论文章。
检索发现，美国的两家期刊中有49篇文章包含“Palestin*”（《美国医学会杂志》中有32篇；《新英格兰医学杂志》中有17篇），英国的两家期刊中有694篇文章包含该词（《柳叶刀》中有236篇；《英国医学杂志》中有458篇）。“Israel*”在美国期刊的840篇文章中出现（《美国医学会杂志》中有386篇；《新英格兰医学杂志》中有454篇），在英国期刊的2972篇文章中出现（《柳叶刀》中有1388篇；《英国医学杂志》中有1584篇）。“约旦河西岸”在美国期刊的9篇文章中出现（均在《美国医学会杂志》中；《新英格兰医学杂志》中未出现），在英国期刊的297篇文章中出现（《柳叶刀》中有211篇；《英国医学杂志》中有86篇）。“加沙”在美国期刊的18篇文章中出现（《美国医学会杂志》中有15篇；《新英格兰医学杂志》中有3篇），在英国期刊的487篇文章中出现（《柳叶刀》中有324篇；《英国医学杂志》中有166篇）。
与美国的两家医学期刊相比，英国期刊发表的包含相关关键词的文章要多得多，并且讨论了对巴勒斯坦人民严峻健康状况应承担的政治责任。本研究纳入的期刊在新闻和评论的呈现程度上存在差异，这可能影响了发表文章的数量。由于以色列的研究机构比约旦河西岸和加沙地带的更多，关键词“以色列”可能被包含在更多的临床和生物医学科学论文中。包括期刊编辑在内的医学领袖有责任参与围绕这种可预防情况的讨论，因为这可能会产生长期的公共卫生后果。
无。
