- BAGHDAD - The number of leukemia patients has surged in Iraq in recent
years, reaching a rate as high as one in 10 in some southern provinces,
the Iraqi health ministry says.
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- Between 1989 and 1995 the greatest rise
in leukemia cases was in Muthanna province bordering Kuwait and Saudia
Arabia, where the rate rose from 3.8 percent to 10.6 percent, weekly newspaper
Alif Ba reported.
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- Abbas Fadhel, director of the Radiology
and Nuclear Medicine hospital, told Alif Ba the increase may have resulted
from "atmospheric pollution by radioactive substances released during
the aggression against Iraq." (From U.S. depleted uranium shells and
bombs? -ed.)
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- An international coalition drove Iraq
out of Kuwait in early 1991 following its invasion in August 1990.
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- "Iraq has not received medicine
for treating leukemia" under the UN oil-for-food accord, a ministry
official was quoted as saying, referring to the deal that allows Iraq to
sell $2 billion in crude oil every six months with which to buy food and
medicine.
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- Iraqi Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak
recently said that 1.5 million Iraqis died during the embargo imposed after
the Kuwait invasion because of "U.S. obstinacy."
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