News Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 2, 2004 |
Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343
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Secretary Thompson Looks To A Healthier Future For Iraq
Secretary Thompson said the United States and Iraq are making rapid
progress in rebuilding that nation’s health care system,
which was starved and neglected under Saddam Hussein. The
intentional neglect caused the Iraqi people to suffer from high
infant mortality rates, virtually no treatment for cancer, a lack
of medicines and medical professionals to treat their illnesses,
and no care for mental illness.
Secretary Thompson recently returned from a three-day trip (Feb.
27-29) to Iraq and Jordan to assess progress in building
Iraq’s public health infrastructure and health care systems.
“I saw the hope of the Iraqi people everywhere I went,”
Secretary Thompson said. “They know they have a long
way to go, but they are happy about the aggressive steps we are
taking and are encouraged by the progress. Iraq’s
families are looking forward to a happier, healthier future now
that Saddam is no longer standing the way of quality health
care.”
With the help of the United States and its coalition partners,
Iraq's 2004 budget for health care is $950 million, compared to
only $16 million for the Ministry of Health in 2002 under Saddam
Hussein, which represented a 90 percent reduction from a decade
earlier. Most of the funding for health care is coming from
the Iraqi oil sales, with support from other nations, including the
United States.
On Feb. 27, Secretary Thompson visited with Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) Administrator Andrew Bremer to discuss the
situation in Iraq, including the now-approved Transitional
Administrative Law. Following that meeting, Secretary
Thompson visited the Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. This
facility serves as the primary care facility for injured military
personnel, both American and Iraqi.
On the final day of the trip, March 1, Secretary Thompson and other
staff from HHS went into the Red Zone to visit Medical City,
including the Ministry of Health and the Al Mansour hospital, and
later visited the Alwiyah Women’s clinic.
Throughout the tour of Medical City and the Al Mansour hospital,
Iraqi Minister of Health Abbas praised the hard work of the Iraqi
people and thanked Secretary Thompson for the support from the
United States and its coalition allies.
The Alwiyah Women’s clinic provides maternal and mental
health care for women in Baghdad. Under Saddam Hussein there
was no mental health system and very little care for the mentally
ill. Prior to the increase in health funding, the cost of
receiving services at the clinic was prohibitive for many
Iraqis. However, the cost is now equivalent to 12 cents U.S.
per visit.
“These Iraqi doctors are wonderful people with big hearts and
a strong desire to help,” Secretary Thompson said.
“But Saddam’s regime spent only about 68 cents per
person per year on health and wouldn’t give doctors and
nurses the supplies they needed. Doctors were forced to watch
their patients die because they just didn’t have the supplies
or medications they needed. And medical education was stifled for
25 years, which meant that new practices and technologies
couldn’t be utilized and, in the end, people suffered.”
On Feb. 28, Secretary Thompson met with Her Royal Highness Princess
Ghida Talal, as he spent nearly two hours touring and visiting with
patients at the King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in Amman,
Jordan. HHS’ National Cancer Institute (NCI) entered
into a cooperative agreement with the KHCC in September 2002.
This agreement enabled the center to enhance medical sciences and
improve patient care and led to the hiring of Dr. Samir Khlief to
be Director-General of the center. Dr. Khlief, an
internationally recognized oncologist and senior cancer research at
NCI, was appointed to transform the hospital into a comprehensive
center of excellence.
As part of the visit, Secretary Thompson witnessed the launch of a
state-of-the-art, broadcast-quality telemedicine system called
TELESYNERGY. This system combines cameras, microscopes, audio
equipment, and a variety of peripheral devices to provide a
high-resolution display of images in both real-time and
store-and-forward modes, while enabling scientists and clinicians
at multiple laboratories and hospitals to interact simultaneously
with one another.
A number of patients in the KHCC were Iraqi children who suffer
from leukemia including Acute Lymphobalstic Leukemia (ALL), which
is more than 80 percent curable if treated, but 100 percent fatal
if not. These children would not have received any treatment
in Iraq, but will be saved because of the CPA, KHCC and benefactors
of the center.
Joining Secretary Thompson on the trip was senior staff including
Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute; Charlie
Curie, director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration; Dr. Tony Fauci, director of the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Disease; and Dr. Howard Zucker, deputy
assistant secretary for health.
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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
Last Revised: March 5, 2004
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