What UNICEF said at the UN briefing
We must accept the very real possibility
that the true number of children suffering from diarrhoeal illness is much
higher than the number reaching hospital.
Briefing by Simon Ingram, UNICEF Communication Officer, IRAQ
Good afternoon.
UNICEF staff in Baghdad have today reported a serious outbreak of diarrhoeal illness at a hospital in one of the city's poorest suburbs. At al-Noor hospital, 300 cases of diarrhoea were admitted in the space of three hours -- many of them children.
Our staff say that because of the lack of security on the streets of the city, and because of the inflated cost of transport, many of the sick are not being brought to hospital until they are severely dehydrated. In some instances, we know for a fact that the resort to medical help comes too late, and victims are dying alone at home. We must accept the very real possibility that the true number of children suffering from diarrhoeal illness is much higher than the number reaching hospital.
If -- as reports suggest -- the outbreak at the al-Noor hospital is being replicated in other parts of Baghdad and beyond, it only underscores the crucial importance of ensuring that safe water supplies reach the Iraqi population fast.
By and large this is not happening. Indeed, as I mentioned in my briefing note last Thursday, we are faced with the very real possibility that in the south of the country at least, water treatment plants will very soon run out of supplies of the chemicals needed to make raw water supplies safe to drink. Unless urgent steps are taken to rectify this, a dramatic escalation in the incidence of diarrhoeal disease may be unavoidable.
On a more positive note, I can confirm that seven UNICEF trucks carrying some 60,000 litres of drinking water crossed from Iran heading to the Al-Fao peninsula today. This is the second UNICEF water convoy from Iran, and the relative ease with which it crossed suggests that our efforts at turning Iran into a substantial corridor of aid for Iraq are starting to bear fruit.
Finally, I have an update for you on the ongoing efforts to locate the children missing from the al-Rahma Centre for Street Children. I wish I could say the news was reassuring, but it isn't. The man now in charge of the centre told UNICEF today that he'd managed to find three of the missing girls, and four of the boys. But none of them have agreed to return to the centre. Their reluctance is understandable, given the traumatic circumstances in which they had to flee, and the appalling condition that the centre has been left in by the gang who looted it. Meanwhile, the fate of the other 19 girls missing from al-Rahma is uncertain.
For further information please contact us:.
Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF Iraq: gkeele@unicef.org
(962-6) 551-5921 ext. 126,
Cell +962-79) 692-6191
Anis Salem, UNICEF Amman: asalem@unicef.org
(+962-6) 553-9977 ext. 407
(Cell + 962 79 557 9991
Simon Ingram, UNICEF Amman: wbelmonte@unicef.org,
(Cell + 962 79 504 2058
Gordon Weiss, UNICEF New York, gweiss@unicef.org
(+1-212) 326-7426
For interviews in the region, write or call directly to the UNICEF NewsDesk in Amman: (962-79) 50422058 iraqichild@unicef.org