[Internal diseases with special emphasis on endocrine disorders during war conditions]

Presented here is our own experience acquired in the course of one war-year in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovnia. Numerous factors that have altered the picture of a number of diseases, their frequency, character and intensity, and as a result, their diagnostica and therapy, have been noticed. Most frequent factors are the following: poorer personal and general states of hygiene, lower standard of living with general lack of food of all kinds, physical strains, exposure to psychotraumas, temperature and climatic changes, life in collective centres and siege, constant migrations of the population, captivity molesting and stay in prisoners camps. The problems, that the health service has, and that are greater than those of the population, have been pointed out. The following diseases have been registered: "common colds" which affect respiratory tract, peptic ulcers, dyspeption, gastritis, malnutrition, enterocolytis and TBC. The most frequent diseases of endocrine glands are: diabetes mellitus, thyreotoxicosis and hypertension. The prolonged hospital stay of the wounded and the patients, as long as 6-7 months, because of their waiting to be transported abroad, or to their homes, is criticized, because as a result of that hospitalisation of the acute patients has been impossible.