For how we live.
A Global Burden of Disease analysis puts substance use disorder prevalence at 0.78% across the Arab League in 2023, about 63% below the global figure — yet women's opioid prevalence topped men's in 19 of 22 countries.
Measles incidence edged up and rubella more than doubled across 22 countries in 2023–2024, with outbreaks in Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan driving the trend as second-dose coverage stalled.
National surveys show risk behaviours climbing among adults with diabetes since 2007, while a separate study finds noncommunicable-disease mortality nearly twice as high in the worst-affected province as in the best.
Papers in WHO EMRO's journal document multidrug-resistant hospital infections in Saudi Arabia, unaffordable injectable antibiotics in Iran, and antibiotic use without prescription in displaced Syrians.
Peer-reviewed work in 2026 argues the effects reach past medicine shortages into financing, procurement, workforce and continuity of care — and frames the finding as association, not proof of cause.
A surveillance analysis of Sistan and Baluchestan finds confirmed and probable cases falling from a 2019 peak, with an 11% fatality rate and a clear winter clustering.
A review pooling prevalence across the region ties the projection to modifiable risks that are unusually common there — smoking, inactivity, diabetes — layered on rapid ageing.
Chronic granulomatous disease is usually X-linked in Western cohorts. A multicentre Middle East and North Africa registry found the opposite pattern, alongside late diagnosis and a median survival of 8.5 years.
New GBD analysis across 21 countries finds one group whose burden fell — children — while incidence rose 92% overall and the sex pattern inverted.
Two peer-reviewed studies chart the toll: among 122 Khartoum dialysis patients followed for up to 18 months, 53% survived, and those who stayed in the capital fared worst.