Helicobacter pylori: the Middle East scenario.

A review of Helicobacter pylori in the Middle East is presented. Prevalence studies have been performed in asymptomatic population groups from Algeria, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. These showed that the prevalence of H. pylori is similar to that of the developing countries of the world with a high level of infection in childhood (40 to 70 percent), which increases with age to 85 to 90 percent. Israel, however, has a low prevalence in children (10 percent), but there is a rapid rise in the second decade of life to 39 percent, reaching 79 percent in those over 60 years old. The prevalence rates were higher in those living in communal settlements (72 percent) than in urban dwellers (65 percent). The infection rates were higher in persons of Mediterranean and Asian origin (89 percent) compared to those of Western European/North American origin (57 percent). The prevalence rate of H. pylori infection in patients undergoing endoscopy for upper gastrointestinal symptoms has now been reported from many Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Iran, Israel, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. These studies showed that patients with gastritis and peptic ulcer disease had similar rates of infection as reported from Europe, United States and Africa (71 to 92 percent). However, patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia had higher rates of infection (61 to 89 percent). The H. pylori scenario from the prevalence rates, treatment protocols and responses to treatment does not differ very much from other developing areas of the world.     

Gender in the Muslim Middle East

Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt. Margot Badran. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995. 352 pp.
Gender Politics in Sudan: Islamism, Socialism, and the State. Sondra Hale. Boulder, CO. Westview Press, 1996. 294 pp.
Quest for Conception: Gender, Infertility, and Egyptian Medical Traditions. Marcia C. Inhorn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994. 441 pp.     

Visual Revolutions in the Middle East

Five years ago images from the Arab uprisings revealed a renewed investment in political visibility. Despite the brutal outcome of most of these revolts, the centrality of seeing for understanding the dynamics of political vision and struggle in the region remains salient. Images serve as important touchstones around which political narratives emerge and cohere. In this special issue on Visual Revolutions in the Middle East, seven scholars— Diana K. Allan, Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, Alisa Lebow, Peter Limbrick, Anjali Nath, Peter Snowdon and Mark R. Westmoreland—bring interdisciplinary attention to the generative possibilities of image-making in sites of political contestation. Whether through archival remnants, mobile screen technologies or the lens of a camera, the contributors to this collection explore the image as an agent of expression, engagement and critique, operating at the interface between political desires and evidentiary forms of visuality.     

Children in the Muslim Middle East

Children in the Muslim Middle East. Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.477 pp.     

The genomic history of the Middle East

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