More than 200 children in southern Iraq have been infected with a disfiguring skin disease in an outbreak that some health officials are blaming
on the war's devastating effect on the nation's public-health system.
According to local officials in Iraq's southern province of Qadisiyah, who reported the outbreak to the United Nations, about 275 children have been
struck with leishmaniasis, a disfiguring disease spread by sand flies.
"This is a killer disease, and we are trying to stop its spread as soon as possible," said Dr. Omer Mekki, an epidemiologist at the World Health
Organization's Iraq office
and it concludes
Since the conflict began, hundreds of U.S. soldiers have also been infected and scarred by leishmaniasis.The disease was first identified in Iraq
more than a century ago, but outbreaks were rare under Saddam Hussein. Since the conflict began, however, experts say the destroyed health system has
allowed lurking viruses to return.
Can war itself cause disease?
