Health in the Middle East

doi:10.1136/bmj.39006.478796.80

BMJ 2006;333:815-816 (21 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39006.478796.80

Editorial

Health in the Middle East

No one's priority, everyone's problem

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

At the height of the Arab-Islamic civilisation between the 8thand 12th century, scholars laid the foundation for modern medicinebased on observation and reasoning.¹ Avicenna's Al Qanun ofMedicine was the standard medical text in Europe for severalcenturies. In the bimaristans (hospitals), still standing inthe heart of Aleppo (figure), the mentally ill were treatedwith water, music, light, and the scent of flowers—testamentto enlightened attitudes. Today, the geopolitical remnants ofthat empire, a legacy of past conflicts and externally imposedboundaries, includes some of the poorest and richest countriesin the world, whose basic health indicators generally paralleltheir economic status.

Bimaristan hospital for the mentally ill in Aleppo, Syria

Credit: AL MOHANDES AL MADANY

Many of these countries, rich and poor, spend far more on defencethan on health and research and development combined and arelagging behind on major indices of . . . [Full text of this article]

Wasim Maziak, associate professor of University of Memphis and director of Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies

Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies and University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
(wmaziak@memphis.edu)

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