BMJ  2005;330:550-551 (12 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.550

Editorial

Counting the dead in Iraq

We need to know how many people have died

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

Counting the dead is intrinsic to civilised society. Understanding the causes of death is a core public health responsibility. The government's white paper on public health emphasises the vital role of assessing the impact on health of all public policy.¹ This is well recognised, and yet neither the public nor public health professionals are able to obtain reliable and officially endorsed information about the extent of civilian deaths attributable to the allied invasion of Iraq. Estimates vary between tens and hundreds of thousands.

These estimates come from reports in the press, or counting bodies admitted to hospitals, (www.iraqbodycount.net) as well as surveys. The former are likely to be inaccurate and to underestimate the true numbers and do not easily allow for reliable attribution between, for example, violent and natural causes. Public access to reliable data on mortality is important. The policy being assessed—the allied invasion of Iraq—was . . . [Full text of this article]

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 2JD (Klim.McPherson@obs-gyn.ox.ac.uk)

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

One child, one world, and one permit expired

Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2005 330: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

UK and US governments must monitor Iraq casualties

Owen Dyer
BMJ 2005 330: 557. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• (2005). Hit parade. BMJ 330: 1155-1155 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

We don’t do body counts

Frank W Arnold
bmj.com, 14 Mar 2005 [Full text]

Failure to count Iraqi casualties is irresponsible

Benedetto Terracini, et al.
bmj.com, 15 Mar 2005 [Full text]

The irresponsibility of failure to count Iraqi casualties

Esteve Fernández, et al.
bmj.com, 18 Mar 2005 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>