The people of Iraq are in urgent need of better health care
and their situation is deteriorating by the day. The UN has today
appealed for at least $325 million in emergency funds to meet the
immediate health, nutrition, water and sanitation needs of the most
vulnerable populations. Out of this amount, the World Health
Organization urgently appeals for $185 million.

This request is part of the wider United Nations humanitarian
appeal for $2.1 billion to provide assistance to the people of Iraq over
the next six months. This appeal is being launched jointly by all the
UN humanitarian agencies in New York and Geneva.

WHO is already working in Iraq to provide badly needed medical
assistance. The health status of the Iraqi people has been seriously
affected by more than two decades of war and economic sanctions. Child
death rates today are more than twice as high as they were in 1990: one
in eight children dies before the age of five, one in three children is
malnourished and one in four begins life as an underweight baby.

“Overall, the health of people in Iraq is poor and likely to
get worse,” said Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of the World
Health Organization. “This appeal is not an optional extra. It is the
only way of stabilising the situation, and indeed improving it.”

The three biggest child killers in Iraq are acute respiratory
infection, diarrhoeal diseases and measles. Almost half of the country’s
24.5 million people are children whose future depends on a massive and
rapid improvement in the country’s health and infrastructure.

Conflict is already adding to the strains on the health of the
population and on the infrastructure on which they depend. For example,
damage to the electricity and water supply in the southern city of
Basra is expected to lead to additional health problems, particularly
for children and other vulnerable groups. People elsewhere may soon face
similar or worse emergencies.

A substantial investment is needed to provide essential care
to people who are either injured in the conflict or whose health suffers
as a result of damage to the infrastructure. In the months to come,
more will be needed to begin rebuilding the most critical and most badly
effected parts of the public health system.

That means building up the capacities of hospitals and health
centres; it means providing some $60 million of medicines, medical
supplies and equipment; it means repairing and rehabilitating vital
hospitals and health centres.

There must be substantial investment in the ability to detect
and respond to outbreaks of disease, in the training and equipment of
health workers and in the health information which is vital to
prioritise health work.

WHO today has more than 300 staff working hard in Iraq to
support the health system and to bring badly needed medical assistance
to people across the country. During the current conflict, WHO has
successfully sent teams to help with an outbreak of diarrhoeal disease
in northern Iraq and to assess the health needs of people who have left
their homes. WHO is ready to do much more work across the whole country
in support of the health system.

In the weeks and months to come, Iraq’s health system will
almost inevitably come under unprecedented pressure. Health is a crucial
part of the economic and social system.

For further information, please contact WHO spokespersons
Fadela Chaib in Amman (00 4179 475 5556) or Iain Simpson in Geneva (00
4179 475 5534); simpsoni@who.int

The following WHO specialists are available to respond to media questions:
Dr G Popal, Head of the WHO country office in Iraq (+962 795 7092); Dr
Mohamed Jama, Deputy Regional Director, WHO Eastern Mediterranean
Regional Office, Cairo (+202 276 5026 ); Dr Jim Tulloch, WHO Regional
Health Co-ordonator, (+4179 509 0640); Dr David Nabarro, WHO Executive
Director, Geneva (+41 22 791 2363, +41 79 217 3446)