The National Report on Health Statistics in Lebanon: The country health statistical database is available but not centralized and difficult to access || Newspapers (Arabic)

The Institute for Health Administration and Social Care at the Saint Joseph University launched yesterday the “National Report on Health Statistics in Lebanon” in collaboration with the Ministry of Public health and the World Health Organisation and with the support of the University’s Research Council.  The coordinator of the project, Dr. Michelle Kosermelli Asmar, noted that in Lebanon there are indeed ample statistics, studies and figures for example related to morbidity, the health sector as well as health personnel.  However, this data base is dispersed amongst various Ministries and other institutions and difficult to access in the absence of a central reference or observatory.

This report, which is the second edition after the first released in 2004, constitutes according to Asmar an important reference for most health statistics in Lebanon and provides various public health indicators, namely: mortality rate, morbidity rate, health infrastructure, human resources, determinants of health such as poverty, environment and labour.  Asmar indicated that the child mortality rate has decreased from 33 per 1000 in 2000 to 18.3 per thousand in 2007.  Parallel to that, no major changes were noted in figures related to HIV-AIDS aside from a slight increase in 2007 and a slight decrease in 2009.  The report also noted that the number of holders of the disability card issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs increased from 10,000 in 1996 to 80,000 in 2011.

The report notes that the percentage of usage of birth control by women has increased to 53.7% in 2009 and also indicates that of the 260 to 280,000 registered Palestinian refugees, 144333 Palestinians suffer from chronic illness and 95% do not have any form of health insurance. To download the report, please click, starting next week, on the following links:
http://www.igsps.usj.edu.lb ; and http://www.leb.emro.who.int ; and http://www.moph.gov.lb

Source: Al-Safir 5 December 2012