Hepatitis outbreak in Iraq

[Nancy Waterman]

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=540294.html

Collapse of water and sewage systems is believed to be at root of the illness

BAGHDAD A virulent form of hepatitis that is especially lethal for pregnant women has broken out in two of Iraq's most troubled districts, Iraqi Health Ministry officials said in interviews here this week, and they warned that a collapse of water and sewage systems in the country is probably at the root of the illnesses.

The disease, called Hepatitis E, is caused by a virus that is often spread by sewage-contaminated drinking water.

The officials said that their limited ability to test for the virus had already been overwhelmed by the hepatitis outbreaks, suggesting that only a fraction of the actual cases have been diagnosed. But in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum that for months has been convulsed by gun battles between a local militia and American troops, as many as 155 cases have turned up.

[skooooo]

1. That'll strengthen democracy in Iraq.

[Eye and Monkey]

2. and encourage support for the US Occupation, I'm sure.

CDC's description of Hep E:
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/hev.htm

This has been going on for awhile -

Inadequate sewage disposal blamed for hepatitis outbreak
Report, IRIN, 1 June 2004

http://electroniciraq.net/news/1539.shtml

SADR CITY -- Two boys happily play with pieces of plastic rubbish near a long puddle of smelly, green water, stretching across a few streets in Sadr city, east of Baghdad, seemingly oblivious to the potential health problems they face.

Ali, 11, says his mother constantly cleans the cement in front of his house, trying to keep the water at bay. She doesn't keep him from looking through a nearby pile of rubbish, however, he says, laughing and holding up a broken toy.

Ali's mother's attempts to keep things clean might be able to keep one family healthy. But the puddle of standing water and others like it nearby is probably the culprit in more than 100 recent cases of hepatitis E - a viral illness that feels like a bad case of flu and is commonly transmitted through human waste.

The outbreak was confirmed by Health Ministry officials at the end of March in this poor neighbourhood, said Buthaina Ghanem, public health officer for the communicable diseases department of the UN World Health Organization's (WHO) Iraq office, now working from Amman.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

3. Hepatitis is a particularly dangerous

freedom-hating virus.

[sam sarrha]

4. There is no water treatment, raw sewage flows ilnto the river where

millions get their water.. only 8% of the rebuild money has been spent...is Halburton reeping the interest on the unspent money???

[SpiralHawk]

5. Thanks a pantload, koMMander* chimPee

You really know how to "liberate"

* AWOL for over a year while honor-bound by solemn oath to be serving with the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s; defeated by a clear majority of patriotic and discerning American voters in the 2000 election; selected to office by the "legal" system; AWOL on 9/11 so he could read a book about a pet goat, even though he knew America was under attack.

[jumpstart33]

6. They will bring it back to the states.

Or did we carry it over there?

[Lori Price CLG]

7. All part of 'Operation Iraqi Freedom.' No worries, Halliburton can...

...fix it with oh-but-another no bid contract!!

Cheers,
Lori Price
http://www.legitgov.org/

[carols]

8. This seems suspiciously like what we did to the Native Americans...

with the small pox virus. And speaking of smallpox, I wonder if they will try to foist some of that stockpiled smallpox vaccine off on the Iraqis and tout it as the miracle cure for hepatitis. God knows they haven't been able to unload it anywhere else.
Carol

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. Woah.... is shrubby aware of this?? Who is in charge of garbage pickup

and sewer system renovation?? This is not good... not good at all. Our meddling in these peoples' lives is going to bite us and bite us hard...

This is a damn shame... say what you want, but these people had socialized medicine, shrub tried to make it look like they had no schools... nothing... hell, Allawi was a NEUROSURGEON... they have ENGINEERS coming out of their butts!!!! And we bust in there and take away ALL of their rights to do for themselves. I'd be immeasureably pissed off as well.

What torques me is when they call their own people terrorists.

Even Allawi called the insurgency "terrorists" yesterday. Now what we have is a new thug... another U.S. friendly strongman, ready to cream half of his country with our help of course.

Tell me what has changed... just tell me what has changed....

I'm not sure but I think shrub screwed up... big time.

[w4rma]

9. In the old days they'd catapult diseased animals over the city walls (nt)

[KansDem]

11. As long as we're liberating them, we could send them American health care

But first we have to make sure that 15.2%* of them will never get health care at all. And we have to make sure that many of the remaining 84.8%* will face raising annual costs that put a constant burden on family budgets...

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0106394.html
________
Based on 2002 statistics.

Here's an interesting statistic: Of all the states in 2002, Texas had the highest rate of uninsured at 25.8%(!)

[hatrack]

12. These viruses hate our freedoms, and will not stand

By leveling these bastions of viral and bacterial terror with white phosphorous bombs and other precision-guided munitions, we will destroy the microbial threat to the peeance, freeance Iraq our brave men and women in uniform are now building!

[doctorus]

13. hepatitis is inaviodable

hepatitis is inaviodable in this case due to after-war antisanitaric conditions. Other infections can be added to the list