Sir, refugees in Jordan enjoy free access to schools, universities, clinics, hospitals, health and social care facilities, on par with their Jordanian brethren, stretching infrastructural capabilities to their absolute, maximum limits, and endangering oral and general health. There is risk of shortages in essential medical kits, medicines and vaccines. Oral health should always be viewed within the lens of general health. Oral diseases cause pain, lower quality of life, reduce productivity in terms of missing school, work and can cause systemic diseases (infective endocarditis, renal impairment).1 Moreover, they become obsolete especially in times of adversity. But what affects oral and general health is the social context that people live in. Health is produced not just by individual biology and medical interventions, but by conditions in the wider natural, social, economic, and political environments.2 And as 90% of refugees live across urban centres, it is vital to envisage a holistic paradigm of action that focuses on sustainable development and supports capacity building in host communities (national health systems, schools, community centres, etc), and tackles social injustices and inequities. By integrating oral health into strategies of promoting general health and by incorporating refugees' health into the healthcare systems of host communities, strategists can help Jordan remain resolute and unwavering in its humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, lifting huge burdens from the global community at large.
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Al Qutob, M. Refugees in Jordan. Br Dent J 220, 323 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.238
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.238