Spanish Public Health Society (SESPAS)

Through surveys of 78 healthcare workers in Gaza between August 2024 and February 2025, an international team has documented patterns of injuries among the civilian population during Israel's ongoing invasion. The most common traumatic injuries were burns, followed by injuries to the lower and upper limbs. Explosion damage accounted for most of the weapon-related trauma, which particularly affected the head, while gunshot wounds were mainly located in the lower limbs. The study is published in The BMJ.

Analysis of data from a mobile health app covering more than 5,000 people in 1,609 cities in the United States reveals that moving from a less walkable area to a more walkable area leads to an increase in the number of steps taken per day, and vice versa. Walkability was measured using the Walk Score, an index based on parameters such as proximity to services, block length and intersection density. According to the authors, the results can serve as a guide for urban design policies that improve public health. The study is published in Nature.

A team from the United States has analysed data on modes of transport in more than 11,500 cities in 121 countries around the world, including Spain, representing 41% of the world's population. In addition to studying the factors that most influence the proportion of journeys made on foot or by bicycle, they estimate that if each city analysed increased the extent of its cycling network to the level of Copenhagen (Denmark), private vehicle emissions would be reduced by 6% and the public health benefits would be equivalent to around £37 billion. The results are published in the journal PNAS.

Today the Spanish Parliament rejected the creation of the State Public Health Agency, a proposal that had been envisaged since the Public Health Act of 2011 and whose idea of implementation had resurfaced after the pandemic. 

A study has used geospatial data and satellite imagery to analyze the number of MK 84 bombs dropped by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip between October 7 and November 17, 2023 that detonated near hospital infrastructure. Of the 36 existing hospitals, 30 of them had suffered at least one explosion within 800 meters. According to the authors of the paper, which is published in PLOS Global Public Health, the research “reveals concerns about indiscriminate shelling near hospital infrastructure, which enjoys special protection under international humanitarian law.”

This Friday, the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System approved the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking (PIT). The document, which incorporates 147 proposals from the autonomous communities, has not achieved consensus among all of them.
 

In an interview on TV3's Els Matins, the Catalan government's health minister Josep Maria Argimon explained that they are preparing a regulation to ban smoking on bar terraces and make them "smoke-free spaces". They are also considering adding canopies and the entrances and exits of schools to the ban.

In the coming days, our children and young people will return to their schools. In addition to their education, schools offer the possibility to improve and maintain their health also through healthy and sustainable nutrition. This is one of the current challenges in Europe; a much more complex challenge than it may seem.  

The Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration calls for the creation of an institution "that prepares us to protect the health of our population in the face of the current pandemic, future pandemics and current health challenges".