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http://www.msf.org/ Médecins Sans Frontières Date: 24 Jun 2003 Developing medical needs in Iraq are from lack of basics Health infrastructure in Iraq remains fragile and the outbreak of disease is a risk. Distribution and administration to medical facilites remains an ongoing problem. Lack of security, lack of drugs in the hospitals and lack of clean drinking water remain the most important threats to the health situation in central and south Iraq. Cases of diarrhoeal disease are abnormally high and MSF staff have started distributing tailor-made diarrhoeal disease kits and training Iraqi staff on cholera testing. In addition, over the last few months, MSF teams have visited several health centres where the health staff have been running out of drugs. "The problem seems not so much to be that there are no drugs," says Ayham Bayzid, head of mission of the activities of MSF in Iraq, "but that the distribution system to get them from the central warehouse in Baghdad to hospitals and health centres throughout the country has still not become functional after it collapsed during the war." The lack of drugs also further decreases the security situation in the hospitals. When people begin to worry that there will not be enough drugs to treat their families, they start threatening the hospital staff. Consequently MSF activities in southern Iraq is focusing on supporting the fragile primary health infrastructure. In Basrah and Maysan governate, the organisation supports 15 critical primary health centres in Basrah with essential drugs and rehabilitating of destroyed buildings. Alongside this, the Al-Madana hospital in Basrah has been supplied with drugs, renewable supplies, IV fluids and HIV spot tests - and MSF is helping to assist in meeting the most urgent needs of the central laboratory in Maysan governate. Cholera concerns Due to the lack of access to clean water, the risk of outbreaks of communicable diseases such as cholera is still high. In the upper-southern governates of Iraq, the incidence of diarrhoeal disease normally increases during the summer months. However this year, because of the lack of clean drinking water due to the war, a very high percentage of hospital paediatric admissions are due to diarrhoeal disease. In 13 governates, MSF will distribute tailor-made diarrhoeal disease kits to 24 hospitals to support this increased caseload and train the staff on the use of cholera 'Smart' test kits. To support the re-establishment of laboratory services for communicable diseases, MSF will donate equipment, materials and agents to the central laboratory in Baghdad and hospital laboratories in ten southern governates. Health assessments Two new health assessments shall take place in the coming few weeks. One of these will focus on the health situation of some 20,000 displaced Arabs from Kurdish areas now surviving in Dyala governate (just north of Baghdad). The other one will target the central part of the south in Qadisiyah governate, focussing on some communicable diseases, paediatric wards and primary health care. In addition, MSF is providing basic health care services to some 1,300 refugees in the No-man's-land at the Iraq-Jordan border. For further information, visit Médecins Sans Frontières website at http://www.msf.org/ _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk