Syria’s health is in a bad way, and the country can never prosper until it is set right again. In the Lebanon, which may be taken as typical of the whole, there are 150,000 cases of malaria every year, and the annual death-roll from this cause alone exceeds 5,000. Relapsing fever claims 2,000 victims; dysentery claims more, and there are 10,000 sufferers from tuberculosis. In 1928, 29,000 persons died, and only 22,000 were born. The birth-rate has fallen from 38 per 1,000 in 1913 to 19 per 1,000 in 1928. The people are becoming steadily impoverished, and the land goes out of cultivation. The recent great drought has increased the distress. The situation calls urgently for reform. Reform is needed in the first place in the method of disposing of the dead. Corpses are still buried in the old-fashioned way, in consecrated ground, and the graveyards of the Lebanon are overcrowded and insanitary. Secondly, a far stricter watch must be kept over drinking-water, which, at present, is liable to pollution. Thirdly, the system of medical relief must be reorganised on a wider basis. At present, there are only some thirty doctors in the whole country, and many districts are entirely without medical aid. Fourthly, more and better schools must be provided. Fifthly, agriculture must be encouraged, and a wider market sought for the produce of the soil. Lastly, the public health must be systematically safeguarded, and a proper sanitary service instituted.
Original dispatch: Syria cannot heal without a rebuilt health system