HEALTH TIMEBOMB IN IRAQ
The aftermath of nightly bombing and chaos on the streets as looters run riot, may not be the only concerns of Baghdad's residents. There is a health timebomb ticking in Iraq, which was already set in motion ten years ago.
Contributing factors to this dire situation have been abuses of human rights, misrule by Saddam Hussein, the destruction of vital infrastructure and economic sanction of the past decade, according to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
Typhoid and malnutrition widespread
These have resulted in high infant mortality rates (107 deaths per 1000 live births per year), a 1000 % increase in the incidence of typhoid and widespread malnutrition. Even before the war, it was estimated that 10% of Iraqi children suffered from malnutrition.
In January 2003, PHR sponsored several health professionals to visit Iraq and to inspect health clinics and hospitals, nutrition and food distribution sites, water treatment plants and electrical generation installations.
One of these health professionals was Dr Charles Clements, a cofounder of the International Medical Relief fund and founder of the International Commission on Medical Neutrality.
Electricity cuts result in filthy water
Dr Clements, in an interview with Medscape Medical News, voiced his concern about electricity cuts, which directly affected the water supply in all cities. Water treatment and distribution, treatment of sewerage and sewerage pumping all requires electricity. He ascribed the 1000% increase of typhoid in the cities, where 70% of the population lives, to these sanitation problems.
Malnutrition is also a major problem. Even before the outbreak of the war, 60% of Iraqi civilians depended on their regular food baskets form the Oil-For-Food-Program (OFFP). Even them 10% of Iraqi children were chronically malnourished – and many more will be soon, as the war has disrupted this food distribution programme.
Hospitals in crisis
The looting of the Al-Kindi Hospital in Baghdad yesterday raised major concerns among medical staff, according to whom, the Iraqi hospitals were inadequate to begin with. Not only were there insufficient medical supplies and staff, but with the huge influx of trauma patients, there were simply not enough beds. Patients from the looted hospital have been evacuated to other facilities. The conditions in the hospitals have been labeled as "chaotic and catastrophic", according to a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Iraqi hospitals have been inundated with thousands of civilian casualties from the war, but the situation was made even more dire by the Iraqi forces using a hospital in Nasiriyah as a military staging area for Iraqi forces. The building was clearly marked as a hospital by a flag with a Red Crescent symbol, but it harboured weapons, stockpiles of ammunition and military uniforms. This action was denounced by the US government and the PHR.
With the war seemingly at its end, with the Iraqi government having collapsed, the humanitarian crisis now needs to be addressed, according to Dr Clements. The 450,000 tons of food that used to be shipped to Iraq monthly, needs to be distributed again – and this provides a major logistical problem in a country whose infrastructure is in rack and ruin. Aid workers and soldiers who try and distribute meager available rations, have been mobbed by hungry crowds.
The casualties from the war may pale in comparison to the numbers of people who die from typhoid and malnutrition in this ravaged country. (Susan Erasmus, Health24)
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