The war in Iraq has destroyed basic healthcare in Iraq. This destruction is killing people today and, even in the best case scenario, will kill people for years in the future.
In the 1970-1980's Iraq had, arguably, the best healthcare system in the Arab world. Now, it is the worse.
more after the fold
the body of this diary is from: Pity the sick of Iraq
How bad is it for the children of Iraq?
THE DEVASTATED HEALTH OF IRAQI CHILDREN: The combination of sanctions, war and occupation has resulted in Iraq showing the world's worst evolution in child mortality: from an under-five mortality rate of 50 per 1000 live births in 1990, to 125 in 2005. That means an annual deterioration of 6.1 per cent -- a world record, well behind very poor and AIDS- affected Botswana. At the outset of the 2003 war, the US administration pledged to cut Iraq's child mortality rate in half by 2005. But the rate has continued to worsen, to 130 in 2006, according to Iraqi Health Ministry figures.
From this article: IRAQ: Malnutrition among under-fives
According to the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), about one in 10 children under five in Iraq are underweight and one in five are short for their age.
"Many Iraqi children may also be suffering from ‘hidden hunger’ - deficiencies in critical vitamins and minerals that are the building blocks for children’s physical and intellectual development," Hajaj said. "These deficiencies are hard to measure, but they make children much more vulnerable to illness and less likely to thrive at school."
Hajaj emphasised the importance of children being properly fed in the first two years of their lives, particularly the first six months when breastfeeding is vital.
"Iraq's exclusive breastfeeding rates are very low compared to other countries in the region. Only 12 percent, as of the last survey, which took place several years ago," Hajaj said.
The violence in Iraq, in addition, to whatever physical effects, also affects the psychology on the people of Iraq. How many of them have Post-Traumic Stress?
A study called "The Psychological Effects of War on Iraqis", the Association of Iraqi Psychologists (AIP) was published earlier this year. In it 92% said they feared being killed in an explosion. approx. 60% said the level of violence had caused them to have panic attacks.
Children, I believe, are going to be more effected, psychologically, than adults. And, whatever damage that is done to the minds of the children of Iraq, will last THEIR lifetime. So decades in the future there will still be people suffering from the aftereffects of the war.
What about Hospitals? What are their conditions?
The Iraq Medical Association reports that 90 per cent of the almost 180 hospitals in Iraq lack essential equipment. At Yarmouk Hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in Baghdad, five people die on average every day because medics and nurses don't have the equipment to treat common ills and accidents, according to Yarmouk doctor Hussam Abboud. That translates to more than 1,800 preventable deaths in a year in that hospital alone.
One offical in Basra suggested that the info he's seen indicates that 90 children died in Basra between January-July 2006. Since Basra is one of the more stable cities in Iraq, how bad is it in some of the smaller cities/town?
How about some direct effects of the war have against hospitals?
In the first week of November 2006, in Ramadi, some 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, 13 civilians entering the hospital to get treatment were killed by snipers. Less than 10 per cent of the hospital's staff was still working there when US-led forces burst into the hospital many times day and night, looking for snipers on the hospital's roof. "The multinational forces were outside, surrounding the hospital, but they intruded into the hospital on a daily basis," Turlan said. "Now people rarely go to the hospital because they fear being shot or arrested."
Is the Iraqi government doing anything to help?
The current Minister of Health Ali Al-Shimari is part of the political movement of Moqtada Al-Sadr. This is hurting the system. In addition to using the system for the benefit of Moqtada Al-Sadr, I wonder how much help the US is giving the Ministery of Health? Given the leadership, I'd assume that helping is NOT high on the priority list.
Then there is the fact that doctors, nurses, for that matter anybody with a college degree in Iraq are targets for attacks. Assassinations, kidnaping, simple harassment are common.
Examples abound. Dr Washdi Mahmoud works in the Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital, the largest cardiovascular centre in Baghdad. Via telephone from Baghdad on 27 February 2006, he said: "Yesterday morning, we were threatened by the relatives of patients. They even pointed a gun at one doctor's head! The hospital's security guards didn't bother to intervene, so we decided to go on strike."
and another
On 9 November, men reportedly wearing blue police uniforms kidnapped the head of Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) administration, Dr Anas Al-Azawi, in front of his house. The price for his freedom was set at $750,000, but he was released after a lesser ransom was paid. On 17 December, armed men allegedly wearing Iraqi Army uniforms stormed the office of the IRCS in Baghdad and abducted 42 people. 26 IRCS employees, both Shia and Sunni, were later released.
All of the above is causing massive numbers of professionals to leave Iraq: The info below is a full year out of date. One wonders how many people have left Iraq since then? Or, perhaps, more important, How many health professionals are left in Iraq?
In March 2006, the British NGO Medact said that 18,000 out of Iraq's 34,000 physicians had left the country since the onset of the war, according to official figures from the Iraq Medical Association (IMA). Farouk Naji, a clinician and senior member of IMA, declares: "About 2,000 physicians have been killed since 2003. The violence has increased and everyday we are losing the best professionals in Iraq." In some cases, ambulances picking up the injured after explosions are without paramedics or nurses, Naji says. "There are not enough professionals and the ones available are in hospitals, trying to figure out how to treat patients in improvised operating theatres," he adds.
Did the US do anything to help?
RECONSTRUCTION UNDER OCCUPATION: A DISMAL FAILURE : Four years into the US- led war on Iraq, the country's healthcare system is in a shambles. Most hospitals lack basis supplies, dozens of clinics remain incompletely constructed, and costly high-technology equipment lies idle in warehouses. Since 2003, US agencies may have spent up to $1 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds on healthcare, but no new hospitals and only a few local clinics have been built. Even the pet project of First Lady Laura Bush -- a $50 million state-of-the-art children's hospital in Basra -- is running far behind schedule and over budget.
According to Amar Al-Saffar, an official in charge of construction at the Iraqi Health Ministry, not a single hospital has been built in Iraq since Al-Khadimiyah Hospital opened in 1986 in Baghdad. A $200 million reconstruction project for building 142 primary healthcare centres ran out of cash in early 2006, with just 20 centres on course to be completed, an outcome the World Health Organisation described as "shocking".
Laura Bush's showcase children's hospital in Basra, a project awarded to Bechtel, went much the same way. The hospital was slated to feature 94 beds, private cancer suits, CAT scans and other high-tech equipment necessary to treat childhood cancer in a region highly affected by depleted uranium following the 1991 Gulf War. The price tag rose from $50 million to $170 million and in July 2006 Bechtel was asked to withdraw from the project. It remains on hold.
Without a health care system thousands of deaths will occur in Iraq, that should NOT.
What will happen this summer when the water shortage leads people to drink from rivers. How many people will die from waterborne diseases?
How many innocent people wounded in mass terror attacks will die from wounds, that would have lived if they could reach a hospital (and of course, if that hospital had a trained staff and the proper supplies)?
How many children will die from a lack of basic health care?
Thank you for reading
jeff