BMJ  2003;326:1107 (24 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7399.1107-b

News

Poor security is biggest impediment to health care in Iraq

Owen Dyer

London

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

Poor security was identified as the most serious impediment to the delivery of aid and health care in Baghdad at a meeting of the Red Cross and Red Crescent last week. "The three most urgent problems for health in Iraq today are security, security, and security," said Dr Ghulam Popal, the World Health Organization's representative in Baghdad.

A young man takes water from a broken water pipe in Basra

AP PHOTO/ADAM BUTLER

Several hospitals have been offered "protection" by armed gangs. Oxfam's media officer in Baghdad, Alex Renton, said one survey had found that more than half of 56 hospitals have been taken over by militias that take their orders from local mosques. Posters on hospital walls warn female staff to wear the hejab.

The lack of security was vividly illustrated by the murder in his home last week of the neurosurgeon Dr Jaafar Al-Nakeeb. Dr Al-Nakeeb, who was a . . . [Full text of this article]


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