Rise in cancer cases a legacy of conflict

When Zadoun Parek was three years old he used to play at the end of his Baghdad street near a government weapons storage depot, his mother, Amal Emin, told IRIN. Now Parek, 5, is in hospital with a plastic bag dripping intravenous liquid into his body. His hair has fallen out from the chemotherapy treatment he is getting for leukaemia. He looks up sadly, his body listless, as his mother talks about a chemical factory near the family's house that also might have made him sick. Parek and other youngsters at the children's leukaemia ward in the elite Medical City hospital may be part of the legacy of former President Saddam Hussein's preoccupation with war and weapons. "The whole country was a dumping ground for weapons," says Dr Salma Hadad, who sits on the national cancer board based at Medical City. "We have been in wars for the last 24 years." Parek seems to have fallen ill just from playing outside, Emin said, stroking his head. Hundreds of other children like him are laying in hospitals across the country or wasting away at home. There are no exact medical statistics about childhood leukaemia or cancer cases because of looting at the Ministry of Health following the US-led war last year. But it appears the number of childhood leukaemia cases seen per year has tripled in the last decade, according to individual records kept by Dr Mazin Faisal al-Jadiry, a paediatric oncologist at Medical City. Only four medical facilities in Iraq deal with malignant cases, al-Jadiry said, making the case that his statistics are representative of the other three because many families travel to Baghdad for treatment. In 1994, there were about 140 cases. In the last couple of years, the number has soared to more than 290 per year. Doctors believe the rapid rise in a disease they just call "malignancy" may be caused by the toxic environmental conditions left by the first Gulf war. "We feel that there is an increase, but we don't know from what," al-Jadiry said. "The number of cases may even be underestimated, because some of the cases are treated in private hospitals. Others do not come to light due to fear, ignorance and lack of resources, with many failing to report instances of cancer because of the stigma attached, Hadad said. There has also been a rise in the number other types of cancer, especially around Salman Pak and Tuwaitha, about 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, where thousands of workers and their families may have been exposed to radiation in a clandestine nuclear research programme. Hundreds of people died last year after families in the area rushed to nuclear research sites, emptied containers filled with radioactive materials and took them home, sometimes storing food and water in them, said Dr Wisam Aziz Abin al-Qateels, an infectious disease specialist at a hospital near Tuwaitha, where the research was done. Many of the patients didn't visit hospital because they died within a couple of days, al-Qateels said. Others developed skin tumours from touching radioactive materials and then died, he said. "I think many people died from the radiation, but how will a doctor know the cause of death if people are ignorant or don't tell us?" al-Qateels said. "Some studies say there is no risk from these materials. Others say the opposite, that these materials need immediate laboratory research." At the time the containers were taken, US troops offered $2 for each container to get them back. No one knows for sure if all of the containers were returned, however. "It's not easy to get these people to tell the truth, because they are afraid the police will take them to jail for stealing," al-Qateels said. "Even if thousands of people died from this, the doctors don't know why. It's a tragedy." At the same time, cancer rates have soared in southern Iraq, with many pointing to the use of depleted uranium by coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf war. The toxic heavy metal was used in shells and missiles, leaving much land near battle zones contaminated. Doctors have also seen increases in problem pregnancies from the region since the Gulf war, with a rapid rise in the last year, said Dr Namat al-Beiruti, a paediatrician at the semi-private Yermuk hospital. "There's definitely an increase in congenital abnormalities and in abortions. We need to do research to find out why, but we have no time, we have no money," al-Beiruti said. "What's behind this? Is it other environmental pollution? Is it radiation? Is it starvation? We don't know."