Loujeina Haj Youssef

Sep 14, 2023 | newarab.com | Mark Hunter |Loujeina Haj Youssef

Looking at Syria today, it is difficult to believe that in 2009 its flourishing pharmaceuticals industry supplied over 90 percent of the country's needs and exported its products regionally and globally. Likewise, the country's clinics, notably for plastic surgery, had become a destination for patients from abroad seeking high-quality services at a low price, including many Russians. Syrian medical schools even offered exchange programs with universities in France and Russia.

Sep 14, 2023 | newarab.com | Mark Hunter |Loujeina Haj Youssef

No one knows, and no one will ever know, exactly how many medical doctors fled Syria as the protests of 2011 morphed into a civil war that continues to this day, pushing the country's health system into collapse.