War Prevention
Medact Health
Monitoring Project
New report points to long-term health impacts of war on Iraq as death toll continues to rise
The health consequences of the 2003 war on Iraq will be felt by the Iraqi people for years, maybe generations, according to a new report by a global health charity released on November 11 in London and 13 other countries.
The UK-based charity Medact says the war on Iraq and its aftermath have already exacted a heavy toll on combatants and civilians, who paid and continue to pay the price in death, injury and mental and physical ill health, yet the numbers affected continue to rise.
The new report, Continuing Collateral Damage: The health and environmental costs of war on Iraq, estimates that the war on Iraq may already have caused over 20,000 Iraqi deaths, and draws attention to the deterioration in the general state of health of the Iraqi people since the war.
Health in Iraq, especially among children, was of grave international concern before the war started, with one in eight children dying before their fifth birthday and a quarter of babies born underweight. The impact of the 2003 war compounded this poor state of health, afflicting people who were already weakened.
Vulnerable groups, including women and children especially, have suffered from the breakdown in law and order, lack of security and damage to infrastructure. Beleaguered Iraqi health services are unable to cope with the health crisis. For every Ali Abbas, the severely injured and orphaned boy now undergoing intensive treatment in the UK, there are thousands of maimed children with no safe access to adequate health services, let alone sophisticated rehabilitation.
The findings have emerged from a comprehensive independent survey assessing the health and environmental impact of the war undertaken by Medact since March 2003. The research was carried out by an international team of authors and advisers, all experts on health and conflict.
"Limited access to clean water and sanitation, poverty, malnutrition, and disruption of public services including health services continue to have a negative impact on the health of the Iraqi people," said the report's author Dr Sabya Farooq.
Poor health is further jeopardized by the extensive war-related contamination of land, rivers and atmosphere. "The health and environmental consequences of the war will be felt for many years to come," said Medact President and international public health expert Dr June Crown.
The report's analysis of the postwar health situation notes that long-term health and wellbeing will depend on restoration of security, revitalisation of the economy and society, and reconstruction of all services that impact on health, including health services.
"The international community has a duty to ensure that the long-term effects of this conflict are mitigated as far as possible by meeting funding commitments for reconstruction. At the same time donors have a responsibility not to divert resources from other countries in crisis," said Medact Director Mike Rowson.
The report is published in association with IPPNW and was part-funded by Oxfam and the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation.
Executive Summary (also available in Arabic, Sorani, and other languages on the Medact website).
Full report (PDF, English)
The full report in English, Arabic, and Italian is also on the Medact website as are additional working papers on issues arising from the report.
IPPNW experts on health consequences of war against Iraq.
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