Adolescent health in the Middle East and North Africa region: leaving no one behind

Over the past few decades, there has been a considerable reduction in communicable diseases, but these reductions have been largely offset by the negative health impacts of conflicts in the region and the emergence of non-communicable diseases, mental health disorders, unintentional injury, and self-harm. Decisionmakers should make gender-responsive adolescent mental health services available and accessible, with specific urgency in conflict and humanitarian settings where the double burden of conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic have increased distress and widened the gender gap. More attention should be paid to adolescent immunization, including human papilloma virus vaccination, through the national adolescent immunization programmes and to combating all forms of violence against adolescent boys and girls, including bullying, domestic violence, child marriage, and female genital mutilation.