14 July 2019 – When Elizabeth Hoff was appointed as WHO Representative in Syria in 2012, she didn’t expect that she would spend the next several years leading the emergency health response in what has been described as the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian emergency. After seven years of working in the war-ravaged country, the next chapter of her career will take her to Libya, where she has been nominated WHO Representative.

“I leave Syria with a heavy heart,” she says. “This has been the richest and most rewarding position I’ve ever held.”

1 July 2019 – WHO has successfully evacuated a 60-year-old female patient with a mental disorder from Al Hol camp in north-east Syria to a WHO-supported psychiatric hospital in Aleppo.

Three-month old Safaa after her surgery, made possible with the support of the Bambino Gesú Hospital 

17 June 2019, Damascus, Syria – With support from WHO, a team of senior medical specialists from the Bambino Gesú hospital in Rome (the largest paediatric hospital in Italy) has just concluded a one-week visit to Syria to work with their counterparts in the Paediatric Hospital in Damascus.

The team has made several visits to Syria as part of a collaborative programme to build the capacity of the Paediatric Hospital in Damascus. WHO supports the hospital with state-of-the-art equipment and supplies, while specialists from Bambino Gesú provide supportive supervision and practical training on the latest techniques and advances in paediatric surgery.  

5 April 2019 – The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly condemns the consecutive reported attacks on 3 health facilities in north-west Syria on 28 and 30 April. The attacks resulted in damage to infrastructure, putting them out of service.

Of the 3 facilities attacked, 2 were hospitals located in northern Hama providing life-saving medical services to thousands of vulnerable populations affected by increased hostilities over the past weeks. The first hospital hit, in the early hours of 28 April, offered general surgery, maternal and child care services to approximately 8000 beneficiaries per month.

On the same day, in the late afternoon, the second hospital was hit which provided, on average, 1300 medical outpatient consultations and over 300 major and minor surgeries per month. With these hospitals out of service, there is only one other hospital remaining in the area to provide secondary healthcare services. The other facility was located in Idlib, providing on average 1500 primary healthcare consultations per month.