IRAQ: War in Iraq has caused a public health disaster which has left the country's medical system in tatters and increased the risk of disease and death, according to a new report released.
Medact, a British-based charity which examines the impact of war on health, said cases of vaccine-preventable diseases were rising and relief and reconstruction work had been mismanaged.
"The health of the Iraqi people has deteriorated since the 2003 invasion," said deputy director of Medact, Gill Reeve, yesterday. "Immediate action is needed to halt this health disaster."
The report, which is based on interviews in Jordan with Iraqi civilians, relief organisations and health professionals who worked in Iraq, called for Britain to set up an independent commission to investigate civilian casualties and to provide emergency relief and a better health system.
"The 2003 war exacerbated the threats to health posed by the damage inflicted by previous wars, tyranny and sanctions," the report said. "It not only created the conditions for further health decline, but also damaged the ability of Iraqi society to reverse it."
A government statement said health standards were significantly better than before the war, with enough drugs and other supplies being purchased. This year's health budget of more than $1 billion was a 20-fold increase on 2001/2, it added. Iraq's interim government criticised the report as poorly researched, mostly from outside Iraq, and containing unsubstantiated claims.
A car bomb in a crowded market north of Baghdad killed at least seven civilians and wounded 18. The bomb went off yesterday in Baiji, an oil-refining town 180 km from Baghdad, as a US military patrol was passing. The blast destroyed market stalls. A US military spokesman said two US soldiers were wounded. In a separate attack in the town, an insurgent fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a US tank, wounding a soldier.
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomb exploded near a US convoy on the road to the airport, wounding five soldiers.