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Mobile Medical Team Helps Survivors of Saddam’s Nerve Gas

Mobile Medical Team Helps Survivors of Saddam’s Nerve Gas

HALABJA, Iraq (Oct. 6, 2003)—Some 15 years after Saddam Hussein dropped poison nerve gas on this northeastern city and surrounding villages, USAID is helping Dr. Sinor Qadir treat people who survived the attacks.

The 25-year-old doctor is part of a mobile medical team visiting villages such as Tawela, perched in steep valleys around Halabja. The team provides medical care as well as training in literacy and sewing to help people earn a living.

“U.S. aid is paying our salaries, the cost of our vehicle, and for basic medicines such as antibiotics, analgesics, and antiparasitics,” said Qadir, as nearly 30 women and children crowded into a village house to meet with the team.

But the worst cases are those such as Hawjen Latif, 24, who saw her mother and brother die of nerve gas. “I was little—I don’t remember completely what happened,” she said, her face troubled. “The gas smelled like garlic and like apples. There was a bombardment.”

Other women told Qadir their families suffer from breathing difficulties. “Most suffer fibrosis of the lung from mustard gas,” said Qadir. “Because Saddam’s forces used a ‘cocktail’ of sarin, tabun, and mustard gas, little is known about the medical effects and duration of problems,” she said.

“This mobile medical program is very good and we hope to expand it,” said the young doctor as a mother asked her to examine an infection in the scalp of a teenage girl.

The U.S.-funded medical team is not only treating people, but teaching people about sanitation and other health issues.

“If we didn’t have the U.S. funds, we could not do as much as we do—we treat more people, provide more free medicine. If I could speak to Americans, I would say thank you for your humanitarian aid to the Kurdish people, who have been suffering from torture and oppression.”

The project, supported by USAID with a $7,000 grant for three months and carried out in cooperation with the Coalition Provisional Authority, supports four mobile teams, including Qadir’s.

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