7,000 Iraqis Sickened By Cholera - Epidemic May Reach Baghdad Within Weeks - NYT

[hatrack]

BAGHDAD, Sept. 11 — A cholera epidemic in northern Iraq has infected approximately 7,000 people and could reach Baghdad within weeks as the disease spreads through the country’s decrepit and unsanitary water system, Iraqi health officials said Tuesday. The World Health Organization reported that the epidemic is concentrated in the northern regions of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya and that 10 people are known to have died. But Dr. Said Hakki, president of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, a relief organization that has responded to the epidemic, said that new cases had turned up in the neighboring provinces, Erbil and Nineveh, indicating that the disease had spread.

Most significant, Dr. Hakki said, were two cases in a village on the border between Kirkuk and Diyala Provinces, one involving a young girl. Baghdad is next to Diyala. Because of that geographic spread, Dr. Hakki said, health officials at the Red Crescent estimate that cases will begin turning up in Baghdad in late September or early October, when temperatures are especially favorable for the growth of the bacteria Vibrio cholerae, which causes the disease by infecting the intestine.

Dr. Cerko Abdulla, chief of the Sulaimaniya health directorate, also said that the epidemic had begun spreading in adjacent provinces. “The water system represents the main problem,” he said. “The disease can spread widely through water, and that’s a very serious matter.”

In Baghdad, Iraq’s deputy health minister, Dr. Adel Mohsin, said that he was not aware of any cases on the Diyala border. But he said that further spread of the epidemic was “very likely” unless government agencies followed strict guidelines on water testing and maintaining sufficient levels of chlorination, which kills the bacteria.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html

[graywarrior]

1. How much more can these people endure?

[BonnieJW]

6. My thoughts too.

The littlest ones will die first. This is going to be unbearably heartbreaking. I have never felt so helpless. These poor people. Are there any charities out there? Of course, what can THEY do without any kind of fresh water, electricity.

[Fridays Child]

2. Another consequence of Bush's destruction of their country.

These cases of cholera are on his head, as much as every other war wound he's inflicted on the people of Iraq. What is the definition of war criminal?

[whistle]

3. Does allowing innocent Iraqis to get sick over there make America safer?

[emilyg]

4. K&R

[XemaSab]

5. How the hell is it that what, 4 years, after we bombed the crap out of their infrastructure

they still don't have clean water? This is craziness. :(

[Systematic Chaos]

7. K&R - just disgusting.

I have no words.

[Olney Blue]

8. Cholera is a horrible disease- death from dehydration can occur quickly.

It is nearly always associated with a breakdown in sanitation.



:cry:

[MissWaverly]

9. yes, I am sure Halliburton is providing our soldiers clean water

Yeah, sure, like the statement that the clothes came back dirtier than before they went to the laundry, I
am sure the water is also sparkling clean. Look for our troops to be impacted as well.

[Olney Blue]

10. I hope they are providing clean water, for God's sake.

[MissWaverly]

11. No, they are not that would cut into their profit margins

This report was from 2006

WASHINGTON - Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused “mass sickness or death,” an internal company report concluded. The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.
The problems discovered last year at that site — poor training, miscommunication and lax record keeping — occurred at Halliburton’s other operations throughout Iraq, the report said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11854311/

[Screwfly]

12. Ebola

is also associated with unsanitary conditions...especially like those found in refugee camps...

[kestrel91316]

13. However, Ebola is associated particularly with the rather unique and

(to us westerners) disgusting practices involved in preparing the dead for burial in regions of Africa where it has cropped up.

Edited for clarity.