Health and medicine

A nurse treats a Dengue fever patient at a hospital in Omdurman, west of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Sept. 24, 2025.

RSF hits Darfur hospital as cholera, dengue fever spread in war-torn Sudan

A Sudanese medical organization said a dozen people were killed after the RSF shelled one of the last operating hospitals in El Fasher, as Sudan’s collapsing health system battles cholera and dengue fever.

A woman washes her hands at the entrance of a cholera isolation center at the refugee camps of western Sudan, in Tawila in Darfur, on Aug. 12, 2025.

Cholera kills 25 in two days in Sudan's Darfur amid deepening war

The town of Tawila has been the hardest hit in Darfur, with 58 new cholera cases reported on Sunday alone.

People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control queue for food rations in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025.

UN: Sudanese children 'skin and bones' as 250,000 in El Fasher face starvation

The warnings come as reports claim that Colombian mercenaries have taken control over the nearby Zamzam refugee camp.

Cholera patients are treated at a clinic in Sudan's Red Sea State on September 25, 2024.

Cholera outbreak in war-torn Sudan kills 172, infects over 2,700: What to know

Cholera cases are surging in war-torn Sudan, where an overwhelmed health system is struggling to respond amid a civil war that has devastated infrastructure and displaced millions.

Latest News

Feature

Trump's aid freeze forces war-battered Syrian hospitals to halt services

OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Analysis

US aid freeze threatens Sudan’s lifeline as USAID support hangs in balance

“CLOSE IT DOWN!” Mr. Trump wrote of U.S.A.I.D. on Truth Social,

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Tens of thousands flee Jabalia after Israel sends more troops to northern Gaza

Displaced families fleeing Israeli army operations in Jabalia in northern Gaza take the main Salah al-Din road toward Gaza City on Oct. 23, 2024.

Lebanon evacuates Beirut hospital as Israeli strikes expand

Ambulances and paramedics carry people wounded in an Israeli bombing of Beirut to Sahel Hospital.

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.

Culture

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.

GITEX

Flying cars, 'edible' robots come together at Dubai tech exhibit

GITEX brought in more than 4,000 exhibitors from about 170 countries to demonstrate their products and share their knowledge.

A woman suffering from cholera receives treatment at the Al-Kasrah hospital in Syria.

Cholera spreads in Syria as displacement camps on high alert

Fears of a cholera outbreak in Syria are growing after authorities revealed that part of the Euphrates River has been contaminated.

Ambulances carrying the bodies of victims of the A321 Russian airliner that crashed in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area in the Sinai Peninsula, leave the Zeinhom morgue to Cairo airport, Egypt, Nov. 1, 2015.

Culture

Egypt softens toward organ donation

After years of initiatives and calls for post-mortem organ donation, the Egyptian government is considering establishing an organ registry and expanding organ transplant surgeries.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews attend the funeral of Rabbi Shalom Cohen, influential spiritual leader of Israel's largest ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Jerusalem, Aug. 22, 2022.

Culture

Ultra-Orthodox address mental illness in Israel

Bayit Cham battles against the attitude still prevalent among many ultra-Orthodox families that mental illness is something that needs hiding.