[NYTr] Cholera spreads in Iraq as health services collapse - 5, 000 Cases in north

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[WHEN is the United Nations going to do something??  The General
Assembly, along with WHO, the Human Right Council, UNICEF, the ICC and
human rights groups around the world should convene and world tribunal
and the put these bastards on trial for war cimes and and IGNORE the
dsmned US-owned Security Council -NY Transfer]

sent by rick kissell

The Independent - Aug 31, 2007 (no URL)

Cholera spreads in Iraq as health services collapse

By Patrick Cockburn

Lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation has led to 5,000
people in northern Iraq contracting cholera.

The outbreak is among the most serious signs yet that Iraqi health and 
social services are breaking down as the number of those living in
camps and poor housing increases after people flee their homes.

"The disease is spreading very fast," Dr Juan Abdallah, a senior 
official in Kurdistan's health ministry, told a UN agency. "It is the 
first outbreak of its kind here in the past few decades."

Doctors in Sulaimaiyah in Iraqi Kurdistan have appealed for help
because of the rapidly increasing number of cases, saying there is a
shortage of medicines. Although the city has been less affected by
fighting than almost anywhere in Iraq, Unicef says that mains water is
only available for two hours a day and many people have dug shallow
wells outside their homes.

"There is a shortage of medicines to control the disease and the focal 
point [the source of the disease] hasn't been identified yet," Dr Dirar 
Iyad of Sulaimaniyah General Hospital told the UN news agency Irin. Ten 
people have already died and he expects more deaths to occur "over the 
next couple of days as victims are already in an advanced stage of
illness."

The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has risen from 50,000 to
60,000 a month, the UN High Commission for Refugees reported earlier
this week.

"My two children, husband and mother have been affected by cholera 
because we weren't able to get purified water and one of my children is 
very sick in hospital," said Um Abir, a 34-year-old mother. "We have 
been displaced since January and we have to camp near a rubbish tip 
which, according to the doctor, might be the reason for all of the 
family being affected." The number of Iraqi refugees stands at 4.2 
million of whom two million have been displaced within Iraq. Many live 
in huts made out of rubbish and have no fresh water supplies. In 
addition to Sulaimamiyah, the cholera has spread to the oil city of
Kirkuk.

"The bad sanitation in Iraq, especially in the outskirts of cities
where IDPs [internally displaced person] are camped, has put people at
serious risk," said Dr Abdullah. "In Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk, at least
42 per cent of the population don't have access to clean water and
proper sewage systems." Unicef says that local reports suggest that
only 30 per cent of people in Sulaimaniyah have clean drinking water.

Most of Iraq outside Kurdistan is flat so water and sewage need to be 
pumped, but this has often become impossible due to a lack of 
electricity. The water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is highly 
polluted and undrinkable.

In central and southern Iraq, the Mehdi Army, commanded by the 
nationalist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has so far obeyed his surprise 
instruction to suspend their activities for six months after clashes 
with police and rival militiamen in Kerbala left 52 dead and hundreds 
wounded. Checkpoints that normally protect the Sadrist bastion in Sadr 
City in Baghdad were unmanned yesterday.

Militia leaders say they will fight if provoked. "It will be hard to 
stand still with our hands tied when we are attacked or arrested by the 
Americans," said Abu Hazim, a Mehdi commander. Ahmed al-Shaibani, an 
aide of Mr Sadr, said the suspension might only last a week if arrests 
continued.