As Syria begins a 10th year of war, its people continue to exist under conditions of severe privation. Besides killing more than half a million people since 2011, the combination of civil war and military intervention has resulted in 6.1 million internally displaced people and 5.6 million refugees (out of a population of 17.4 million).
Warfare has taken an especially heavy toll on Syria's health and hospital systems. Aerial bombing by the Syrian air force and its Russian ally has targeted health care workers and medical facilities, with almost 600 documented attacks since the beginning of the war, resulting in the deaths of more than 900 medical workers. At the start of the war, Syria's health care system provided a high level of care, according to a report in the Lancet. But the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that only 64% of Syria's hospitals and 52% of its primary health care centers remained fully functional. Up to 70% of the health workforce has left the country.
The unceasing conflict has increased the vulnerability of the civilian population to disease outbreaks. And for those tens of thousands of people who live in refugee camps, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses new danger as crowded living conditions are expected to facilitate rapid transmission of the disease. In late March, as Syria reported its first COVID-19 case, Al Jazeera reported that the UN special envoy for Syria called for an immediate nationwide ceasefire across the war-torn country to enable an "all-out-effort" to combat the coronavirus pandemic.-Frank Brodhead