After the cameras are gone

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7399.0-g

BMJ 2003;326 (24 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7399.0-g

Editor's choice

After the cameras are gone

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Most of the work of doctors—and particularly public health doctors—is unglamorous. They tend to appear in the world'shot spots once the soldiers have blasted their way throughand the cameras are gone.

We experienced round the clock media coverage of the Iraq war,but now it's become boring and we see and hear little. Yetthe health problems in Iraq are severe, says the report fromOwen Dyer (p 1107). "The three most urgent problems for healthin Iraq today are security, security, and security," says GhulamPopal, the World Health Organization's representative in Baghdad.Hospitals are being offered "protection" by armed gangs. Medicalstaff travel to work in dilapidated cars to avoid drawing attentionto themselves. Last week one of Iraq's very few neurosurgeonswas murdered.

Iraq has immediate problems, but it also has a long haul toimprove the health of its people. Samer Jabbour, . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Smith, editor

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