My interest in global health stems from the alarming injury situation in Lebanon and the Middle Eastern countries that suffer from a substantial yet neglected burden as a result of routine trauma and the frequent episodes of war and conflict. Witnessing the major health challenges and their impacts on individuals and local communities ignited in me the passion to address the injury problem.
The scarcity of reliable injury data in Lebanon and the Eastern Mediterranean region, along with the limited number of injury researchers further compound the existing knowledge gap in injury research and pose a significant obstacle to understanding and addressing the injury burden.
I participated in the IHME Global Burden of Disease workshop in 2018 and was fascinated with the wealth of GBD data on various diseases and injuries. Along with international and regional GBD collaborators, we have synthesized GBD data to examine estimates for all types of injuries related to transport injuries, violence injuries, and unintentional injuries for various age groups in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
We further assessed the burden of child and elderly injury, a critical step toward providing context-specific evidence into the mechanisms and risk factors of injuries to raise awareness, transform attitudes, and reduce injuries in the region.
