Joined: Sat May 29, 2004 11:46 pm
Posts: 14428
Location: NC
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How Much Can Iraq Survive?
Baghdad - Iraqis surviving violence are not so sure they can also survive disease.
"Iraq was known to be the best in healthcare in the region," Dr. Iyad Muhammad from Ramadi General Hospital told IPS. "Best doctors, hospitals, nurses and cheapest medicines. The situation now is the opposite."
Dr. Muhammad said several doctors have been killed, and many more have fled the country. Patients are looking to follow them too, he said, with many prepared to sell their property to go abroad for treatment.
"Our situation now has become worse than during the sanctions period (in the 1990s after the first Gulf war) when more than one million died and we had very little medicine and supplies to treat them."
Iraq's health index has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s, Joseph Chamie, former director of the United Nations Population Division and an Iraq specialist has said.
With only sparse care now available at hospitals, Iraqis in need cross the border to Syria and Jordan for treatment. That comes at a price because as foreigners they can go only to private hospitals.
12 year old Ayatt Jamal writes with an
injured hand in her school in
Baghdad, Iraq. Ayatt suffered
severe burns and multiple
fractures of her legs and arms in a
car bombing in August from
which she will never fully recover.
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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."
Honore de Balzac
"Democrats work to help people who need help.
That other party, they work for people who don't need help.
That's all there is to it."
~Harry S. Truman
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