IRAQ: Doctors, NGOs warn of high infant mortality in Basra

[maddezmom]

BASRA, 11 April (IRIN) - As a result of water-borne diseases and a lack of medical supplies, infants born in the southern city of Basra are subject to abnormally high mortality rates, say officials of an international NGO devoted to child health issues.

"For weeks, there were no I.V. fluids available in the hospitals of Basra," said Marie Fernandez, spokeswoman for European aid agency Saving Children from War. "As a consequence, many children, mainly under five-years old, died after suffering from extreme cases of diarrhoea."

Fernandez went on to cite a number of problems facing local hospitals in Basra, which is located some 550km south of the capital, Baghdad. "Hospitals have no ventilators to help prematurely-born babies breathe," Fernandez said. "And there are very few nurses available, so hospitals often must allow family members to care for patients."

Many doctors in the area say that the local health situation has deteriorated markedly since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. "The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era," Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital, pointed out. "Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them."

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/b9fdc6aeb83850f9749264765b65b5be.htm

[DELUSIONAL]

1. But but -- Republicans are the party of LIFE

oh . . . right they worship the unborn fetus -- to hell with the children of Iraq.

I wonder when bushie's death total will reach half a million? If he adds Iran to his list of countries attack that will increase the number of his victims.

Bushie is a guy that just keeps on giving -- even after he is gone the death and destruction from his insanity will continue.

[oblivious]

2. Not to mention DU contamination.

Published on Monday, April 10, 2006 by the Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin)
Iraq Mess is Literally Making People Sick
by Judy Leurquin

...Initial symptoms of DU contamination may include severe headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, night sweats, fever, poor appetite, joint pain, gastrointestinal problems, rashes and oozing lesions. Later on more serious conditions develop, including cognitive difficulties, memory loss, mood swings, neuropathies, blood disorders, menstrual problems, burning semen, increased pain and greater immobility. Death by DU poisoning can be slow and agonizing.

Of the more than 670,000 troops deployed to the Gulf in 1991, about one-third of them now receive disability compensation. According to Doug Rokke, former Army physicist and director of DU cleanup following the first gulf war, more than 11,000 have died since that war ended. (The ground war, which lasted only 100 hours, claimed 179 lives, most from friendly fire.)

...More Iraqis are sick. The numbers of Iraqi children born with birth defects are way up. Iraqis will continue to suffer even more egregiously because they are continuously exposed to DU and other hazards.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0410-28.htm