From January 2014 to December 2015, there were 594 reported attacks in healthcare settings that resulted in 959 deaths and 1,561 injuries across 19 countries, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization.
More than half of the attacks were launched against healthcare facilities and another quarter were waged on healthcare workers. About 62 percent of the attacks were reported to have intentionally targeted healthcare facilities or workers, according to the report.
Over the two-year period measured, 16 of the 19 countries suffered attacks in both years. Three countries — Liberia, Myanmar and Sierra Leone — only reported attacks on healthcare facilities or personnel in 2015.
The Syrian Arab Republic had the most reported attacks on healthcare in both years — twice as many attacks as any other country or territory in 2014, and nearly four times as many attacks in 2015. Only the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank and Gaza Strip had higher numbers of reported attacks in 2015 than in 2014, according to the report.
Hospitals were the object of the majority of the reported attacks in both 2014 and 2015, while healthcare providers represented a quarter of objects of attack. A much smaller portion of attacks — about 4 percent — were made against patients and their families.
To prepare their findings, WHO researchers reviewed various open sources' data on individual healthcare attacks that reportedly took place between January 2014 and December 2015 in countries that experienced emergencies. Attacks were defined as any act of verbal or physical violence or obstruction, or threat of violence that interfered with the availability, access and delivery of curative or preventive health services during emergencies.