Water-borne diseases increase with summer temperatures

The World Health Organisation (WHO), along with NGOs in Iraq, told IRIN on Thursday that high summer temperatures, sometimes touching 50 degrees Celsius, were contributing to ongoing health problems throughout the country. "In this particular season we are faced with increased incidence of diarrhoea, including bloody diarrhoea and watery diarrhoea," Dr Faris Bunni, a WHO medical officer said. Although the searing heat is normal in most parts of Iraq at this time of year, ongoing difficulties with electricty and clean water, as well as a degraded health system, were all contributing to the increase in disease, health experts said. Power supplies to major population centres remain intermittent and raw sewage remains untreated in many cities. According to CARE International, the US-based charity, about two million mt of raw sewage are dumped into Iraq's rivers every day, four times the amount before the war. In the southeastern city of Basra, it seeps from the canals into the irrigation channels that are used for drinking and bathing. In the capital, Baghdad, 300,000 mt escape into the Tigris daily. For many, there is no other water source. The deteriorating situation is compounded by the lack of electricity and cooking fuel which prevent Iraqis from boiling water and making it safe to drink. Given the scorching temperatures, and the fact that 50 percent of Iraq's population have no access to clean drinking water, aid agencies are concerned. Inevitably, they say, it is the children who are most at risk from disease and death through dehydration. "This is only the beginning of the summer of diarrhoea," Anne Morris, CARE emergency response director in Iraq, said recently. "If proper monitoring, testing and prevention mechanisms are not quickly put back in place, the breeding ground will spill over the brim of the cup. The entire Iraqi population is at risk of a public health crisis." Marilyn Hurrella, a medical officer with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), told IRIN from Basra that the number of diarrhoea cases there had been rising along with the temperature. "People don't have clean water to drink. They are drinking dirty water because they get very thirsty, then people get diarrhoea," she said. WHO is doing what it can to monitor the disease by setting up a surveillance system and supporting the activities of the Ministry of Health. "We are doing early detection of this disease on a daily basis in Baghdad and on a weekly basis in other governorates of Iraq," Bunni said. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is currently the leading UN agency for water and sanitation in Iraq. UNICEF information officer Geoffrey Keele told IRIN that 7.5 million litres of clean water are being distributed every day in Iraq. But with clean water still in short supply in many parts of Iraq, this amount remains inadequate. "We are targeting to provide access to the most vulnerable people in need. The water distribution system needs to be repaired in order the meet the needs of 27.5 million Iraqis," Keele said. Seventy cholera cases have been reported in Basra, and one in Baghdad. This is up from figures for May and June, although no deaths have been reported. WHO reported diarrhoeal disease in the four main hospitals of Basra amounting to a total of 1,549 cases of acute watery diarrhoea.