[News] Huge Rise In Birth Defects In Falluja

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Huge Rise In Birth Defects In Falluja

By Martin Chulov

14 November, 2009
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects>The 
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects

Falluja: Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of 
Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many 
chronic deformities in infants and a spike in 
early life cancers that may be linked to toxic 
materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has 
crystallised over recent months as specialists 
working in Falluja's over-stretched health system 
have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city 
interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth 
defects - which include a baby born with two 
heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others 
with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

A group of Iraqi and British officials, including 
the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr 
Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors 
David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned 
the UN general assembly to ask that an 
independent committee fully investigate the 
defects and help clean up toxic materials left 
over decades of war - including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.

"We are seeing a very significant increase in 
central nervous system anomalies," said Falluja 
general hospital's director and senior 
specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the 
start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers 
of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of 
deformities has increased dramatically."

The rise in frequency is stark - from two 
admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day 
now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but 
there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," 
he said. "There is also a very marked increase in 
the number of cases of less than two years [old] 
with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."

After several years of speculation and anecdotal 
evidence, a picture of a highly disturbing 
phenomenon in one of Iraq's most battered areas 
has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried 
babies, including those with birth defects or 
infants who were not given ongoing care, were not listed as abnormal cases.

The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul 
Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week 
period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with 
anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were 
born during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.

Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital's 
children's ward, this week urged international 
experts to take soil samples across Falluja and 
for scientists to mount an investigation into the 
causes of so many ailments, most of which he said 
had been "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy.

Other health officials are also starting to focus 
on possible reasons, chief among them potential 
chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal 
clusters of infant tumours have also been 
repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf - areas that 
have in the past also been intense battle zones 
where modern munitions have been heavily used.

Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw 
a direct link with the fighting. They instead 
cite multiple factors that could be contributors.

"These include air pollution, radiation, 
chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, 
malnutrition, or the psychological status of the 
mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."

The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's 
newly opened general hospital and in centres for 
disabled people across the city. On 2 November 
alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube 
defects in the neo-natal ward and several more 
were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic.

Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece 
battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice 
in 2004, US marines and infantry units were 
engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia 
groups who had aligned with former Ba'athists and Iraqi army elements.

The first battle was fought to find those 
responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater 
private security contractors working for the US. 
The city was bombarded heavily by American 
artillery and fighter jets. Controversial 
weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, 
which the US government admitted deploying.

Statistics on infant tumours are not considered 
as reliable as new data about nervous system 
anomalies, which are usually evident immediately 
after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a 
neurosurgeon, said: "With neuro-tube defects, 
their heads are often larger than normal, they 
can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and 
their lower limbs are often listless. There has 
been no orderly registration here in the period 
after the war and we have suffered from that. But 
[in relation to the rise in tumours] I can say 
with certainty that we have noticed a sharp rise 
in malignancy of the blood and this is not a 
congenital anomaly - it is an acquired disease."

Despite fully funding the construction of the new 
hospital, a well-equipped facility that opened in 
August, Iraq's health ministry remains largely 
disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a 
response to the city's pressing needs.

The government's lack of capacity has led Falluja 
officials, who have historically been wary of 
foreign intervention, to ask for help from the 
international community. "Even in the scientific 
field, there has been a reluctance to reach out 
to the exterior countries," said Dr Salah. "But 
we have passed that point now. I am doing 
multiple surgeries every day. I have one 
assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself."

Additional reporting: Enas Ibrahim.

© 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited








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