Syrian Healthcare Crisis

BACKGROUND OF HEALTHCARE PROBLEM To evaluate the merits of utilizing American military forces in a humanitarian support role in Syria, it is important to understand Syria’s current healthcare and humanitarian crisis as well as today’s operating environment. Prior to the start of fighting in 2011, Syria’s healthcare system was adequate and actually improving. The civil war devastated the healthcare system through direct attacks on medical personnel and facilities as well as the emigration of healthcare personnel from Syria in search of personal security. While both the Syrian government and ISIL claim to care for their “populations,” both are failing gravely in this endeavor. The United States’ lack of a clearly identified desired

By nearly all significant measures of public health to include vaccination rates, life expectancy, infant mortality, child mortality, maternal mortality, and prevalence of chronic disease, Syria was comparable to peer countries and positively trending.4 While the pre-war Syrian medical community had much to celebrate, the challenges it faced made the system and population’s overall health particularly vulnerable. These challenges included a mismatch between the population and medical resources due to increased urbanization, difficulty providing care for remote populations, and medical problems secondary to poverty arising from inadequate shelter, malnutrition, lack of transportation, and

Due to ISIL’s strict interpretation of Sharia law, ISIL must provide free healthcare for its “citizens,” which it attempts to do by establishing an Islamic State Health Service modeled after the British National Health Service.10 In reality ISIL provides limited medical care for its fighters, but not for residents of territory it holds and it has prevented humanitarian aid organizations from operating in its territory.11 Interestingly in March of 2015, ISIL announced the opening of its first medical school for both male and female students in Raqqa, Syria to provide a long term solution to the problem.12 While non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to include Doctors Without Borders, the International Committee for the Red Cross, the Red Crescent Society and others are providing significant medical support in Syria, they are not coming close to addressing the needs of the population. The efforts of these relief agencies are complicated by ISIL’s refusal to let them operate in its territory, difficulty getting personnel and supplies to areas of greatest need, and trouble protecting their personnel and