Palestinian superbug epidemic could spread, say doctors

Medics say antibiotics shortage stops them following protocols to fight drug-resistant bacteria. Doctors in Gaza and the West Bank have said they are battling an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a growing problem in the world’s conflict zones, which could also spill over the Palestinian borders. The rise and spread of such virulent infections adds to the […]
He’s treated thousands. The surgeon who keeps returning to Gaza

r. Ghassan Abu-Sitta peers through his black-rimmed glasses at an X-ray. “Not very good,” he quips. “See how the pieces are?” he says to hospital staff, pointing at the fuzzy image.He leans over to cut his patient’s bandages, letting out a sigh. Infection is inevitable, he says, in these “high-energy devitalizing injuries,” his way of […]
Even when wars end in the Middle East, superbugs and aggressive cancers caused by conflict fight on.

In one example, tissue samples from the three-week 2008-2009 Israeli-Hamas Gaza war show remnants of heavy metals in the wounds of Palestinians which can lead to cancers. The details were horrific. Outside the besieged city of Mosul, 13,000 wounded civilians are today waiting for reconstructive surgery – from just this one seven-month battle. Another 5,000 Iraqi police […]
Ghassan Abu Sitta, le docteur qui répare les gueules cassées

Depuis 2011, le département de chirurgie plastique qu’il dirige à Beyrouth, a traité plus de 500 patients, des rescapés syriens et irakiens pour la plupart. Lettre de Beyrouth. En matière de chirurgie esthétique, la réputation de Beyrouth n’est plus à faire. Mais, avec le torrent de violences qui ravage le Proche-Orient, la capitale libanaise s’est découvert […]
A Beyrouth, le Dr Abou Sitta reconstruit les corps déchirés

A la cafétéria du centre médical de l’Université américaine de Beyrouth, le petit Khaled, attablé, joue avec un avion en papier qu’il vient tout juste de confectionner. En sirotant son jus de fruit, il fait voler l’appareil au bout de son bras. A côté de lui, sa mère s’entretient avec Thuraya Zareik, une travailleuse sociale […]
Gaza health sector critically ill after war: Gaza’s health services were repeatedly targeted during 50-day war in 2014, according to Palestinian rights groups

Gaza’s health services were repeatedly targeted during 50-day war in 2014, according to Palestinian rights groups. One year after violence tore through the Gaza Strip in the summer war of 2014, Palestinian human rights groups have released a report detailing the damage to Gaza’s health sector, saying that its effect will last well beyond the […]
As a surgeon who worked in Gaza last year, hearing that 511 Palestinians died after their ambulances were obstructed doesn’t surprise me

While I was there a seven-year-old child bled to death before they could be treated. n July last year, Anas ‘Bader’ Hatem Qdeih, a seven-year-old boy already experiencing the fourth major conflict of his short life, was separated from his family as they fled with thousands of others from Israel’s bombardment of Khuza’a in northern […]
Beirut Hospital Offers Hope for Civilians Injured in Iraq, Syria American University of Beirut Medical Center uses cutting-edge technology to treat victims of Mideast blasts.

BEIRUT—Farah Qasim El-Saad, a mother of three who had her shoulder and jaw partially blown off in a street bombing in Baghdad a year ago, says she would be living a very different life today if not for this: After receiving initial trauma care at an emergency room in the Iraqi capital, she decided to […]
Gaza conflict: As Israel and Hamas both claim victory, hundreds of children suffer life-changing injuries

brahim Khattab, nine, unwrapped a yellow plastic toy bus at Shifa Hospital yesterday, while his mother sadly recalled the trivial argument he had with his older brother before they were splattered with shrapnel from an Israeli missile. As the brother, Wassim 15, lay in the bed beside him, also seriously injured, their mother Khetam, 39, […]