Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The still suppressed WHO birth defect report

Observers say they are on the cusp of getting the hard evidence needed to prove Iraqis are suffering from a disproportionate rate of birth defects and cancers, likely due to massive pollution caused by the war.
So what’s the problem? Or should we say, WHO is the problem?
As in the World Health Organization.
WHO is the public health arm of the United Nations and is tasked with "providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends." Currently, WHO is "providing technical assistance" to the Iraq Ministry of Health (MOH) in a much anticipated study of congenital health defects in 18 Iraqi districts, including Fallujah and Basra – places that have reported high rates of babies born with horrifying maladies since the war began. Basra, consequently, has reported higher incidents of cancer, too, since the first Persian Gulf War. See some of Antiwar’s previous coverage here.
The problem is, the results of the study, which began in May 2012, were expected in early 2013. Both medical and human rights advocates are wondering why they have been delayed – as of today, indefinitely. They want answers now.

That's the opening to Kelley B. Vlahos' "WHO Is Delaying Release of Iraqi Birth Defect Data?" (Antiwar.com).  And Iraqis deserve answers.

They know the answer, anyone honest knows the answer.  In June,  Alsumaria reported that congenital malformations and rates of cancer are extremely high as a result of the uranium munitions the US military used.  It's no longer unusual for a child to be born with two heads or with just one eye, the report explains, and the health statistics are much worse than in Japan in the aftermath of the US using the atomic bombs.  In Falluja, children born with deformities account for 14.7% of all births.   The report notes that although Iraq has a population estimated at 31 million, there are only 20,000 medical doctors and just over 100 psychotherapists in the country.


Again, the answers are known.  But the medical studies thus far are dismissed and largely ignored in a manner that a finding from the World Health Organization can't be.  It's exactly because such a report carries so much weight that Barack's administration has done everything it can to prevent the release of the report.  Doug Weir (New Left Project) observed earlier this month:

 Paediatrician Dr Samira Al’aani has worked in the city since 1997. In 2006 she began to notice an increase in the number of babies being born with congenital birth defects (CBD). Concerned, she began to log the cases that she saw. Through careful record keeping she has determined that at Fallujah General Hospital, 144 babies are now born with a deformity for every 1000 live births. This is nearly six times higher than the average rate in the UK between 2006 and 2010, and one strong suspicion is that contamination from the toxic constituents of munitions used by occupying forces could be the cause. Now a new nationwide study by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, has the potential to catalyse efforts to understand and confront the issue, but only if science can be allowed to rise above politics.


WHO offers this fact sheet on the study.  Felicity Arbuthnot (Pravda) notes a birth on the same day that Kate Middleton gave birth to George Alexander Louis:

On the same day, a universe away, in Falluja, Iraq - poisoned by weapons armed with uranium, chemically and radiologically toxic, and white phosphorous, a chemical weapon, and other so far unidentified "exotic weapons" - baby Humam was born. In a city relentlessly bombarded in 1991 and again in two further criminal, inhuman US decimations in 2004.
Humam was born with Retrognathia, a congenital heart disease , Omphalocele and Polydactly of upper and lower limbs. Omphalocele is an abnormality that develops as the the foetus is forming. Some of the abdominal organs protrude through an opening in the abdominal muscles in the area of the umbilical cord. Polydactly is the manifestation of extra digits on the hands or feet, in Humam's case, both.

Every day children are born in areas of Iraq with birth defects that are a direct result of the illegal war, covering up a report, hiding it, delaying it, will not change that fact.  Earlier this month, Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani (Al Jazeera) observed, "As scientists and public health professionals, we must respond in a timely fashion to global health emergencies and seek their causes. Delays and excuses cost lives that could have been saved."


More deaths in Iraq, more people left injured today.   NINA reports a Nasiriyah car bombing left 1 person dead and five injured, a roadside bombing to the south of Tikrit claimed 1 life and left four people injured, a Falluja shooting left 1 man dead and his wife and their two sons injured, 2 police officers were shot dead in Mosul, the military shot dead 2 suspects in Mosul,  a Falluja armed attack left  a police officer and a civilian injured, Nouri's Tigris Operation Command boasts they killed 7 suspects,  and a Falljua roadside bombing left three people injured.  Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 495 violent deaths so far this month.

The following community sites -- plus NPR, Antiwar.com, Dissident Voice, Jody Watley, PRI, Black Agenda Report,  Adam Kokesh, Ms. magazine's blog and The Diane Rehm Show -- updated last night and this morning:



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