 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
|
UNICEF Worried by Health Risks to Iraqi Children
Reuters http://www.reuters.com Monday, June 9, 2003
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi children are suffering alarmingly high rates of diarrhea and related diseases, a spokesman for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Sunday. Geoffrey Keele told a news briefing that the incidence of such diseases, which include cholera, dysentery and typhoid, was two and a half times higher than at the same time in 2002. "It's extremely worrying," Keele said, adding that a limited survey had indicated that more than 70 percent of Iraqi children had suffered at least one bout of diarrhea this year. He said 66 cases of cholera, including three deaths, had been confirmed in the southern city of Basra. Four-fifths of the victims were children under the age of five. In Baghdad, hospitals were reporting cases of dysentery and typhoid, but the previously rigorous government surveillance system had collapsed since the U.S.-led war on Iraq, making it impossible to gain an accurate overall picture. "We know for instance that last year there was a total of 2,000 cases (of typhoid)," Keele said. "This year we simply do not know because the health system has ceased to function." Antonia Paradela, spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program, said one million Iraqi children had been malnourished before the war, mostly because of diarrhea caused by poor sanitation, rather than lack of food. The invasion and its chaotic aftermath have disrupted clean water supplies, sewage systems and rubbish collection, worsening health hazards to Iraq's vulnerable children. Diarrhoeal diseases are normally most widespread in July and August, the hottest months of the year in Iraq. © 2003 Reuters
Direct Link: --http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2899396
|
||
