Health and medicine

Mayssa (C), 15, and Yara (R), 10, from Khan Younis, on board the UAE evacuation flight that arrived from Eilat to Abu Dhabi on Sept. 9, 2025.

UAE evacuates nearly 100 Gaza patients as 10,000+ await transfer

Abu Dhabi has pledged to bring in 1,000 injured children and 1,000 cancer patients from the Gaza Strip to be treated in the its hospitals.

United Arab Emirates

Displaced Palestinians carry a box of food rations provided by the World Food Program at a makeshift street market in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

World Food Program suspends staff movement after vehicle shot at in Gaza

The news comes amid efforts to increase vaccinations against polio in war-torn Gaza.

A child affected by monkeypox sits on his father's legs while receiving treatment in the Central African Republic on October 18, 2018.

Egypt ups precautions as WHO declares mpox emergency

An outbreak of mpox, also known as monkeypox, in parts of Africa, is forcing Egypt to take early precautions.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz (2nd R) shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) after they joined heads of states and international organizations for a "family photo" during the G20 Summit in Brisbane on Nov. 15, 2014.

India’s Modi ‘deeply concerned’ about Saudi King Salman’s health

The 88-year-old king has faced health setbacks in recent weeks, prompting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to cancel a trip to Japan.

Latest News

UN estimates 43,000 Gaza housing units wiped out, 80% of population displaced

A rainbow appears across the sky as internally displaced Palestinians who fled the Israeli military bombardment and incursion into the northern Gaza Strip shelter in makeshift tents.

In Europe's cannabis market, Morocco faces stiff competition from Israel

A cannabis field is seen in the village of Azila in Ketama region at the foot of the marginalized and underdeveloped mountainous region of Rif, Morocco, Sept. 16, 2022.

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Iraq's war-battered cities grapple with rising resistance to antibiotics

A medic works at a laboratory at the Nablus hospital, run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), in Iraq's northern city of Mosul on Dec. 16, 2021.

Iran: Unprecedented heat wave triggers emergency holidays

A man rinses his face with water from a bottle to cool off during a heat wave in Tehran on July 11, 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in his office in Jerusalem, on June 25, 2023. (Photo by ABIR SULTAN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Why did Israel’s Netanyahu conceal his heart condition?

The hospitalization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday morning and the placement of a pacemaker suddenly revealed to Israeli citizens some details on the true health condition of their leader.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

A worker fumigates a house against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of dengue fever in a neighborhood in Piura, northern Peru, on June 11, 2023. (Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP) (Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)

Dengue fever outbreak in Egypt forces Russia to issue tourism warning

Most cases of the mosquito-borne virus are not severe. Russia has implemented health measures for flights from Egypt as a result of the outbreak.

Hagop Kantarjian, M.D., poses with one of his favorite paintings, "Seated Woman with Red Guitar" (2021).

Interview

From Lebanon to Texas, award-winning cancer doctor charts new course for leukemia research

Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, whose life work has transformed research, diagnosis and treatment of leukemia, also expands cancer research networks and collaboration in the Middle East.

Dr. Hagop Kantarjian

Dr. Hagop Kantarjian

Chair of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center leukemia department

Women chant slogans in front of the Istanbul courthouse in Istanbul on April 5, 2023.

Turkey denies female inmate access to tampons

Imposing a long-held taboo, Turkish authorities have denied a female inmate’s access to disposable tampons.

An employee takes a box of medicines on shelves at a pharmacy in the Turkish capital Ankara on December 13, 2021. - Turkeys pharmacists have brought to light the struggle of many patients who need medicines to treat diseases like diabetes and childrens fevers but cannot find them. They say the crisis that has deteriorated because of the fall in the Turkish liras value. (Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey's medicine shortages could turn into 'drug famine' with no end in sight

In all Turkish pharmacies Al-Monitor visited recently, the drug shortage was palpable. Children's medicines, antibiotics, some cancer drugs top Turkey's long-unavailable drug list.

A Saudi family arrive at a hospital in the center of the capital Riyadh, on May 14, 2013.

Saudi Arabia ahead of UK in women's health index, leads Arab world

A global survey reveals that Saudi Arabia is the leading country for women's and girls' health in the Arab world, while other regional countries sat at the bottom of the 122 global list.

MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty Images

Negev Forum convenes in UAE with Jordan absent from Arab-Israeli meeting

Senior officials from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the United States and Israel have convened in Abu Dhabi for the third Negev Forum steering committee meeting.

A displaced Syrian child carries a jug of water.

Water crisis worsens in Syria's Idlib as support dries up

The "Goal" organization, which has been active in Syria since 2012, has stopped pumping water in villages and towns as support for it ends

A doctor in the oncology department of the Hotel-Dieu de France reviews anticancer drugs in the hospital pharmacy, Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 7, 2022.

Lebanese turn to alternative medicine as health care costs soar

Many in Lebanon are opting for alternative medicine to treat physical and psychological maladies after no longer being able to afford health services.

The mummies of cats and other felines are displayed after the announcement of a new discovery carried out by an Egyptian archaeological team in Giza's Saqqara necropolis, south of the capital Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 23, 2019.

Researchers hunt monkeypox in mummified Egyptian animals

A group of researchers have called for tracking the history of the monkeypox virus in the mummies of animals, as more studies are revealing the importance of the relationship between humans and animals in ancient Egypt.

Ahmad lies in his hospital bed on his sixth day of treatment at Halba's government hospital in Akkar.

Lebanon begins vaccination campaign as cholera cases soar

The crisis-hit country’s collapsing water and sewage infrastructure has opened a breeding ground for waterborne illness.

Cancer drugs are seen at a pharmacy, Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 7, 2022.

Lebanon’s worsening health sector leaves patients suffering

Lebanon's health-care sector is fighting for survival amid an economic collapse, with the lives of patients at risk as critical care facilities have been falling apart and for the majority of the population affording essential medicine has become a luxury.