|
EYEWITNESS: Iraq’s children die of curable kala azar
28 Apr 2005
Source: AlertNet
|
Dr. Eva-Maria Hobiger, project coordinator for Aladdin’s Magic Lamp, a Vienna-based humanitarian venture which provides medicines and medical equipment to Ibn Ghazwa Mother-Child Hospital in Basra, Iraq, says thousands of Iraqi children are at risk of dying from kala azar, a curable disease transmitted by sand flies.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Iraq had an excellent health care system. Since then disastrous domestic policies, as well as western policies toward Iraq, have done a thorough job of destroying that system. Iraq, which possesses the second largest oil reserves in the world, now finds its health care on the level of a third world country.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the resurgence of infectious diseases which had been considered eliminated a decade ago.
Thousands of Iraqi children have died in recent years of kala azar, a tropical illness which occurs in the poorest areas of the world and which, unless treated, inevitably leads to death.
In the past Iraq conducted intensive insect eradication campaigns to eliminate kala azar. But with the deterioration of the country’s infrastructure and the lack of insecticides, which Iraq was forbidden to import under U.N.-imposed sanctions, this was no longer possible.
Kala azar is endemic in poverty stricken areas of our world such as India and the Sudan.
SAND FLIES
It is a leishmaniosis, a disease which is triggered by parasites and transmitted by sand flies.
The victims are mainly infants and small children, whose immune systems have been impaired by poor diet and bad hygiene.
The parasite attacks the lymph nodes and the bone marrow and the infection leads to the enlargement of the liver and spleen and to jaundice. Without treatment, the patient dies within a few months, but with treatment, cure is certain in virtually 100 percent of affected individuals.
The appropriate medication is Pentostam and the average cost of the successful treatment is $15 per child.
According to information from all Iraqi pediatricians I have met, this medication was not available in Iraq in 2002 and 2003. With an Iraqi physician I tried to obtain this medication on the black market but failed.
Now, two years after the war, the situation has not improved.
Kala azar is a severe problem, and thousands of Iraqi children are affected, mainly because the origin of the disease is still existent.
As the overall socio-economic situation for children has deteriorated, we can assume that the rate of kala azar in children has increased due to worsening conditions.
NO STATISTICS
Unfortunately there are no statistics available, but during my visits to Basra I always see several cases of kala azar.
Our project, Aladdin’s Magic Lamp, is the only source from which doctors in Basra can get Pentostam to treat kala azar, and every time when I am in Basra I hear that parents bring their children from Nasiriya or Amara to Basrah for treatment because they know that Ibn Ghazwan hospital, where we work, is the only hospital where Pentostam is availabe.
On the last evening of our last visit I held a six-month-old infant infected with kala azar in my hands.
His belly was so swollen from the enlargement of his liver and spleen that burst blood vessels showed through his skin, as on the belly of a pregnant woman.
It was impossible to quiet the crying child, who was obviously in great pain.
Iraqi children forgotten by the world during sanctions and are now forgotten again.
Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters.
Read more:
Don't let new viruses distract from old killers-UN
FACTSHEET: Top killer diseases in the developing world
Failure to adopt new drugs fuels rise of malaria
GRAPHIC: Killer diseases in the developing world
PHOTOS: Infectious diseases ravage poor countries
NGO PHOTOS: On the frontline in the war against diseases
TIP SHEET: Precautions for travellers in disease zones
Low-profile killers need AIDS cash, experts warn
FACTSHEET: Infectious diseases in the news
Scientists urge more attention to Chagas disease
Posters give health tips in refugee camps
Africa's real killer diseases win little publicity
Brazil fights to lower leprosy rate
The AlertNet Challenge - Infectious diseases special
|
|
|
Reset