RT – ‘Extraordinary devastation’: Mosul healthcare inadequate months after ‘liberation’ – UNICEF to RT
The healthcare system in Mosul is still far from adequate due to the “massive extent of devastation” inflicted, more than six months since the end of the battle for the city, UNICEF’s representative in Iraq told RT.
The situation in Mosul remains tough, with its residents having extremely limited access to health facilities, despite all the efforts of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other humanitarian organizations, Peter Hawkins said. The official has recently paid a personal visit to Mosul to hand over equipment to a public health laboratory and witnessed the situation on the ground.
“What we need to understand is the extent of the problem. This is a massive city. Mosul city probably faced one of the biggest urban warfares since World War II and 2.2 – 2.4 million people affected. It’s an enormous challenge to everybody to try and clear everything up and get the people working again,” Hawkins told RT.
The city is still struggling to adjust some seven months after it was “liberated” from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists by Iraqi troops, backed by the US-led coalition. West Mosul has suffered the most, enduring a months-long siege and heavy bombardment, and the situation there is still worse than in other parts of the city.
“If you’re in the east side it’s much better, on the west side the level of devastation was extraordinary. But wherever you are, the number of healthcare centers, hospitals is very limited, the extent of the damage has affected it,” Hawkins said.
“You have to understand the massive extent of devastation,” he added. “It’s a wide area, wide levels of devastation, families have to walk enormous distances to be able to get the health care.”
inadequate.
Peter C. Gøtzsche, MD is a Danish medical researcher, and leader of the Nordic Cochrane Center at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark
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Peter C. Gøtzsche, MD is a Danish medical researcher, and leader of the Nordic Cochrane Center at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has written numerous reviews within the Cochrane collaboration.
Dr.Gøtzsche has been critical of screening for breast cancer using mammography, arguing that it cannot be justified; His critique stems from a meta-analysis he did on mammography screening studies and published as Is screening for breast cancer with mammography justifiable? in The Lancet in 2000. In it he discarded 6 out of 8 studies arguing their randomization was inadequate.
In 2006 a paper by Gøtzsche on mammography screening was electronically published in the European Journal of Cancer ahead of print. The journal later removed the paper completely from the journal website without any formal retraction. The paper was later published in Danish Medical Bulletin with a short note from the editor, and Gøtzsche and his coauthors commented on the unilateral retraction that the authors were not involved in.
In 2012 his book Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy was published. In 2013 his book Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma has Corrupted Healthcare was published.
The book is comprehensive, with worldwide examples across many categories of drugs of how the pharmaceutical industry operates. It describes the history of the pharmaceutical industry well, and is current, with references from 2013. The comprehensive attack on the largest drug companies is scathing, and it provokes physicians to be more cautious about prescribing. But most important, it shows us that evidence-based medicine and guidelines have been hijacked, as the evidence base has been systematically distorted.11,12 Consequently, we must rethink which evidence and which recommendations we should use to help our patients. A helpful start is the Public Citizen approach of not using any new drug until it is 7 years old.13
Authors’ conclusions:
The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate. The evidence of adverse events following immunisation with the MMR vaccine cannot be separated from its role in preventing the target diseases.
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