MER Article

COVID-19 Exposes Weaknesses in Syria’s Fragmented and War-Torn Health System

The COVID-19 pandemic could not have come at a worse time for Syria. The country’s health care system has already been devastated by nearly ten years of violent conflict, leaving much of the health infrastructure in ruins and health care workers overwhelmed. The health system is not only decimated,

Aula Abbara • 9 min read

MER Article

Illness as Metaphor and Reality in Syria

The regime’s narrative of infection, disease and germs is symbolic and constituent of its internal logic. Using the metaphor of illness, the state justifies killing dissenters (labeled terrorists) by portraying them as germs that must be eradicated in order to ensure the survival of the country as e

Noura Chalati • 10 min read

MER Article

The Dilemmas of Practicing Humanitarian Medicine in Gaza

Humanitarian medical aid was developed to provide life-saving assistance to populations suffering from war and disease. What happens when this model is applied to help those living under occupation and coping with chronic deprivations and long-term siege conditions? Osama Tanous, a Palestinian pedia

Osama Tanous • 15 min read

MER Article

Hepatitis C, COVID-19 and the Egyptian Regime’s Approach to Health Care

As social phenomena, epidemics and the responses they generate reveal much about a country’s political economy and a state’s relationship with its citizens. In Egypt, the manner in which President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi’s regime has approached an epidemic of hepatitis C on the one hand and the arriva

Jennifer Derr • 12 min read

MER Article

Syrian Refugees Navigate Turkey’s Shifting Health Care Terrain

Registered Syrian refugees in Turkey are allowed to access free state health care. But the language barrier, registration difficulties and prejudice led to the emergence of informal clinics run by refugee doctors. Although the government has opened Migrant Health Centers to ease access and replace i

Nihal Kayali • 14 min read

MER Article

The Long Shadow of Iraq’s Cancer Epidemic and COVID-19

The epidemic of cancer in Iraq that emerged after the 1991 Gulf War has afflicted nearly every family. In response to a health care system devastated by sanctions and war, Iraqis acquired decades of experience piecing together novel mechanisms for obtaining treatment. The tendency of families to rel

Mac Skelton • 16 min read

MER Article

The Evolution of Conflict Medicine in the Middle East - An Interview with Ghassan Abu Sittah

During his tenure at AUB, Ghassan Abu Sittah’s work radically transformed the practice of medicine and surgery. As the chair of the plastic surgery department at AUB Medical Center, he singlehandedly redefined the workload of the hospital from a focus on cosmetic surgery to one on reconstructive sur

Ghassan Abu Sittah, Omar Dewachi, Nabil Al-Tikriti • 17 min read

MER Article

Health and the Body Politic

This issue of Middle East Report explores the interactions of the body politic with health and medicine and examines the entanglements of physical bodies in the institutional and political processes that govern them. Articles in this issue explore a range of different landscapes and ecologies of pol

The Editors of Issue #297 • 5 min read

Current Analysis

The Dilemmas of Practicing Humanitarian Medicine in Gaza

Humanitarian medical aid was developed to provide life-saving assistance to populations suffering from war and disease. What happens when this model is applied to help those living under occupation and coping with chronic deprivations and long-term siege conditions? Osama Tanous, a Palestinian pedia

Osama Tanous • 15 min read

Covid-19 Coverage

The Long Shadow of Iraq’s Cancer Epidemic and COVID-19

The epidemic of cancer in Iraq that emerged after the 1991 Gulf War has afflicted nearly every family. In response to a health care system devastated by sanctions and war, Iraqis acquired decades of experience piecing together novel mechanisms for obtaining treatment. The tendency of families to rel

Mac Skelton • 16 min read

Current Analysis

Syrian Refugees Navigate Turkey’s Shifting Health Care Terrain

Registered Syrian refugees in Turkey are allowed to access free state health care. But the language barrier, registration difficulties and prejudice led to the emergence of informal clinics run by refugee doctors. Although the government has opened Migrant Health Centers to ease access and replace i

Nihal Kayali • 14 min read

Covid-19 Coverage

Rebranding the Turkish State in the Time of COVID-19

As Turkish scholars residing in the United States when the pandemic began to curtail normal life, Ergin Bulut and Başak Can signed on to take the Turkish government’s evacuation flight home. This experience and their time spent in government-managed quarantine yielded interesting insights into the s

Ergin Bulut, Başak Can • 15 min read