The Hindu : National : Diseases, not war, could kill more Iraqis

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Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

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Diseases, not war, could kill more Iraqis

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 15 . The rising incidence of diseases in Iraq could kill more people than the military conflict has so far, according to an Iraqi Health Ministry report.

In the first official Government survey since the "coalition forces invaded" the country in March 2003, a detailed report reveals a crumbling health service unable to deal with an epidemic of typhoid, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. The report was presented at a meeting of donors to the Iraqi International Reconstruction Fund Facility in Tokyo, the online edition of Nature magazine has reported.

Lack of water

Disruption of water supplies during the conflict means that roughly 20 per cent of the urban households now have no access to safe drinking water. This has led to 5,460 cases of typhoid in the first quarter of 2004, the report points out. In the rural areas, more than half of the households are without fresh water or adequate sanitation. Measles and mumps are infecting thousands of children, partly because a third of them are chronically malnourished. There were 8,253 cases of measles reported in the first half of 2004, with Basra particularly badly hit. In 2003 there were just 454 cases, the report says.

Similarly, the first four months of 2004 saw 11,821 cases of mumps, nearly 5,000 more cases than there were in the whole of the previous year.

Although the country has huge oil reserves, an estimated 27 per cent of the population live on less than two dollars a day. Life expectancy has fallen below 60 years for both men and women, the report says.

Health sector neglected

Importantly, the report also details the "decline" of health services under Saddam Hussein's rule. "More Iraqis have died as a result of neglect of the health sector over the past 15 years than from war and violence," says the Health Minister, Ala'din Alwan in his report.

It adds that Iraq's health is now comparable with countries such as Sudan and Afghanistan while 15 years ago it rivalled that of Jordan and Kuwait.

Health centres looted

The report further says that in the aftermath of the "invasion," a third of the health centres were looted of vital equipment with one in eight hospitals suffering the same fate.

The health service is being further strained by staff shortage, an unreliable electricity supply and the ongoing violence. Despite the rise in infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease still ranks as the number one killer. This is largely owing to poor diet and a very high prevalence of smoking, but it is accentuated by a lack of public health initiative to change the lifestyle.

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