Shatha Khalil *
Since 2003, Iraq has suffered from retardation, disability and corruption in various sectors, especially health, which has negatively impacted the health care system of citizens. Poverty and unemployment have increased, and the nutritional situation has deteriorated.
Iraq is also suffering from poor sanitation, drinking water supply, low levels of education and widespread unhealthy lifestyles, which have led to the spread of diseases and epidemics, increased mortality rates and low lifetime rates.
On June 26, 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) warned the Iraqi authorities of the spread of “hemorrhagic fever” because of its negative effects on the country’s economy and citizens’ lives, which could cause many of them to die.
The Ministry of Health and the Department of Health of Diwaniyah called for “dusting animal Zareba in the province and the implementation of rapid preventive measures to prevent the spread of the disease to the rest of the provinces of Iraq,” warning of the spread of serious “hemorrhagic fever” virus in the areas of the Middle Euphrates.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed the need to take measures to tighten surveillance of the massacres and to intensify efforts to monitor the workers in the field of butchery and to compel them not to slaughter outside official massacres to prevent the transmission of the virus from animals to humans.
The Ministry of Health announced the observation of several cases of the virus causing the disease in a number of Iraqi cities, and called on the poultry and livestock farmers to take the necessary precautions, and adhere to Health guidelines , hygiene and sterilization and wear gloves and sleeves to prevent transmission of the disease, noting the transmission of the virus through buffalo, cows and poultry to humans , and can be transmitted from one person to another through direct contact with the blood of the injured or secretions of his body.
The Ministry of Health recorded an increase in the number of victims in Diwaniyah and its affiliated villages to about 20 people, likely to move to other southern cities such as Nasiriyah and Amara if the health authorities did not put an end to it.
Sources in the city of Diwaniyah said the city’s hospitals and clinics were full of patients who had come for medical tests for fear of being infected with the disease.
The provincial police and the Diwaniyah municipality have issued instructions to prevent grazing within the cities and follow-up the matter with the concerned authorities in the governorate to ensure the safety of the human and the animal environment and to take strict measures against violators of those orders.
It also stressed that the concerned parties to carry out educational campaigns to guide ordinary citizens to hold seminars and printed posters for the purpose of clarification about transitional diseases, including hemorrhagic fever and prevention methods.
The source confirmed that “the concerns moved to other cities and provinces, as the district of Fallijah issued a statement warning families and people to buy red meat from the shops of butchery, unless stamped with the stamp of the veterinarian, which indicates the validity of consumption, and being slaughtered within the official massacre and under the supervision of specialist doctor”.
A doctor at the general hospital in the city of Nasiriyah in the province of Dhi Qar said that several cases have reached to them, suspected of being infected with the disease, but the official instructions prevented them from officially declaring new injuries outside the province of Diwaniya, but through the ministry.
The doctor said that the suspects had several symptoms of the disease, including high temperatures, severe swelling, nausea and vomiting, as well as the emergence of hemorrhagic spots under the skin and mouth and nose, accompanied by severe muscle pain.
Ministry of Health officials expected more cases to occur in some southern provinces bordering the marshes such as Dhi Qar, Basra and Maysan, where buffalo and cattle breeding flourish in the absence of hospitals and health centers.
The director general of Basra health, “Riyad Abdul Amir said,” the registration of a death case in Basra hospital, calling on citizens to cooperate with health teams.
A member of the provincial council of Dhi Qar, “Rasheed Hamid Serai declared,” the first recorded case of death of hemorrhagic fever. “Laboratory tests of a person proved that he had been affected by the disease in a village in Shatrah north of Dhi Qar.
In Anbar province, Anbar Health Department announced the opening of private lounges to isolate people with hemorrhagic fever, noting that no infection was recorded in the province.
Viral hemorrhagic fever:
According to the World Health Organization, hemorrhagic fever is a disease caused by a number of viruses, accompanied by hemorrhage in most cases, and sometimes transmitted from rodents and some insects, and the incidence of disease increased in rural areas, especially among poultry and livestock breeders, and the patient suffers from hemorrhagic disorders accompanied with fever that it can be developed to death often.
These are some of the viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever:
Ebola virus:
A severe disease that affects humans and falls within the family of Floviridae viruses and is often fatal, with a mortality rate of about 90%…
People get infected with Ebola by touching infected animals (usually after slaughtering, cooking or eating) or by touching the body fluids of infected people. Most cases result from transmission from one person to another when blood, other body fluids or excretions (feces, urine, saliva and semen) are carried from the infected to the body of the healthy person through skin scratches or mucous membranes.
Dengue fever:
It is a mosquito – borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus and it is a viral infection transmitted to humans by a female mosquito bites from the infected by the disease . Dengue is similar to influenza, affecting infants, young children and adults, and there is no specific treatment against dengue fever.
Crimean -Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
It is a widespread disease caused by a virus carried by the tick bug (the Nairobi virus) belonging to the family of Bunia viruses. The Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever, with mortality rates ranging from 10% to 40%.
This virus is transmitted to humans from tick insects and cattle animals, while passing from one person to another as a result of direct contact with the person’s blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids.
Rift Valley Fever:
An animal viral disease that affects animals in the first place and can also infect humans. Infection can cause severe disease for both animals and humans. This disease leads to heavy economic losses due to deaths and abortions that occur among animals who have fever in farms.
Marburg viral disease:
A highly pathogenic disease caused by a virus of the same class as the Ebola virus. It is worth mentioning that these two viruses are among the most common pathogens known to humans. Both are rare, but they can cause severe diseases with high mortality rates.
The disease suddenly starts with a severe headache and severe illness , and many patients show severe hemorrhagic symptoms between the fifth and seventh day. Deadly cases are usually characterized by bleeding from several places.
The virus is affected by contact with the patient’s blood, body fluids, and virus-containing tissues.
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