Terrorist Attacks against Hospitals: World-Wide Trends and Attack Types

Area of Science:

• Global Health Security
• Terrorism Studies
• Public Health Preparedness

Background:

• Hospitals are recognized as vulnerable targets for terrorist attacks.
• Such attacks pose severe risks, including casualties, disruption of services, and public fear.
• The scope and nature of hospital-targeted terrorism remain poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and characterize terrorist attacks against hospitals globally.
• To analyze trends, geographical distribution, and methods of these attacks over a 50-year period.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) for incident data from 1970-2019.
• Analyzed temporal factors, geographical location, attack types, weapon usage, and casualty figures.
• Employed chi-square tests to assess temporal trends and regional variations in attack types.

Main Results:

• Identified 454 terrorist attacks against hospitals in 61 countries.
• Observed an increasing trend in attacks from 2008, peaking in 2014-2015.
• The Middle East & North Africa (179) and South Asia (125) were most affected; bombings/explosions were most common (n=270).
• Resulted in 2,746 injuries and 1,631 fatalities.

Conclusions:

• Terrorist attacks on hospitals are a persistent and growing threat, particularly in regions with high terrorism prevalence.
• Findings underscore the need for enhanced security measures and contingency planning for healthcare facilities.
• This research provides crucial data for developing robust strategies to protect hospitals from terrorism.