Health Crisis in Palestine and Iraq

Letter by Dr Ismail Jalili, FRCS, FRCOphth, NABA Chairman

Last week, Derek Summerfield addressed the health issues in Palestine, as part of Israeli genocide of the Arabs in Palestine. Those who did not have a chance to read it, can access it by clicking the following link.

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/329/7471/924?ehom

NABA's chairman, Dr Ismail Jalili, also wrote about the subject and his letter was included on the same site entitled: Palestine: a state of despair (included at the bottom of this page). We also appreciate the many positive responses we received following the circular we sent.

This week, the issue of Arab genocide in Iraq is addressed in the Lancet in a major article by Les Roberts and colleagues and in a Comment by Richard Horton. The article estimates the human losses to be in the region of 100,000 with the majority of these deaths being in women and children. (You can access them on the web through the following link):

http://image.thelancet.com/extras/04art10342web.pdf    and
http://image.thelancet.com/extras/04cmt384web.pdf

This state of affair has been ongoing with very little outcry from the 'democratic world', let alone the non-democratic world. The current spate of such publications in reputable medical journals is to be applauded, particularly if we are to keep the level of public awareness in the west regarding these appalling situations.