Health Care

Responding to Assaults on Health Care in the Middle East

Wednesday, July 29, 2015
The conflicts and political crises in the Middle East have brought anguish, suffering, and severe declines in health to people throughout the region. The most catastrophic case by far is Syria, where more than a million people have experienced traumatic injuries, once-rare infectious diseases have returned, chronic disease goes untreated, and the health system has collapsed.

Urgently Needed Medicines Reach Hospital in War-Torn Aden, Yemen

Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Last week International Rescue Committee aid workers were able to get lifesaving drugs and medical supplies through to the only hospital still operating in Aden, the port city in southern Yemen that has been bombarded for more than a month by air strikes on Houthi rebel targets. The 22 May Hospital has been struggling to care for the growing influx of injured and sick patients from Aden and surrounding provinces since the city’s largest hospital, al-Jumhouriyah, was overrun by rebels during recent fighting and shut down.

Saudi Coalition Airstrikes and the Destruction of Hospitals

Thursday, May 7, 2015
Mere hours after it announced the end of its military campaign, a Saudi-led military coalition resumed aerial bombardment of military targets in Yemen. Since the Saudi-led military forces intervened in the Yemeni conflict, civilian casualties have dramatically increased. Moreover, constant bombings have destroyed hospitals and other civilian facilities, crippling Yemeni infrastructure and preventing health workers from providing medical care. Those health facilities that continue to function in Yemen are under increasing pressure.

Unbiased Health Care Stifled in Bahrain

Thursday, April 30, 2015
The release of Ibrahim al-Demestani, a nurse imprisoned by Bahraini authorities, is the latest chapter in the government’s ongoing campaign against health professionals. While his release should be celebrated, al-Demestani should never have been imprisoned and forced to complete a three-year sentence in the first place. As protests against repressive governments swept across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, people living in Bahrain launched peaceful protests. The response was unequivocal: the authorities launched a forceful, bloody crackdown against the largely peaceful protesters. A key element of this crackdown was the targeting of health professionals.

Aleppo Hospital Hit by Barrel Bomb, Underground Infrastructure Saves Lives

Tuesday, April 28, 2015
A barrel bomb dropped from a government helicopter hit a SAMS-supported facility in Aleppo today at 1:20pm. The barrel bomb went through the roof of the operating room in the basement of the facility, damaging the hospital's infrastructure and destroying essential medical equipment. The facility has been temporarily closed.

Doctors Lament Increasing Rate of Insecurity of Health Workers

Saturday, May 9, 2015
Medical doctors in Ekiti State have decried the increasing rate of insecurity among health workers in the state. This is against the backdrop of the recent waves of kidnapping of doctors and health workers in the state. On Thursday, unknown gunmen abducted a former Chief Medical Director of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Dr. Patrick Adegun, and his wife, Kikelomo. The abduction is coming five days after a senior nurse with the Federal Medical Centre, Ido Ekiti, Mrs Margaret Aladeneka, was abducted while a yet-to-be identified man was killed during the operation.

Health Care in Conflict: A Doctor's Perspective

Friday, May 1, 2015
Providing or seeking health care in a conflict zone is a perilous undertaking. Every year health workers are kidnapped, threatened, tortured, and killed. Hospitals and clinics are targeted and bombed. Patients are shot. In Syria alone, 187 health facilities have been attacked since March 2011, and 615 health workers were killed—141 of them by torture and execution. One doctor has made health care in conflict the center of his work.

Health Care in Danger Report: The Untold Suffering

Monday, April 20, 2015
“An airstrike destroys the paediatric and premature baby section of a hospital killing, among others, five babies and three mothers. A health-care centre occupied by security forces for days, preventing patients’ access to medical treatment. A clearly marked ambulance misused for an arrest operation. A doctor threatened not to treat wounded combatants of an armed group”. The data on these and other incidents were collected by the ICRC in 11 countries from January 2012 to December 2014 and published in a report, uncovering the untold suffering that violence against health care is causing to thousands.

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