Iraq Struggles With Cholera Outbreak

Majida Hamid Ibrahim, 40, the first confirmed case of Cholera in the Iraqi capital, is seen in al-Sadr hospital in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq in this Friday, Sept. 20, 2007, file photo. The woman died on Sunday in Sadr General Hospital in Sadr City from Cholera and kidney failure, a hospital official said. The spread of cholera in Iraq highlights the creeping fractures throughout the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the country's deepening sectarian gulf and a gangland-style lawlessness in which medical supplies are even fair game for bandits. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File) (Karim Kadim - AP)

BAGHDAD -- Majida Hamid Ibrahim seemed no different from any other victim in Iraq _ her body was put in a plastic bag and sent to the morgue for relatives to collect. But authorities were already bemoaning her death.

Just days before, the 40-year-old woman from Baghdad's southern outskirts became the first confirmed cholera case in the Iraqi capital from an outbreak spreading around the country. The World Health Organization has confirmed more than 3,300 cholera cases in Iraq and at least 14 deaths from the acute and rapid dehydration it causes.

The troubles, however, also point beyond the immediate struggle to control the deadly advance.

They highlight the creeping fractures throughout the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the country's deepening sectarian gulf and a gangland-style lawlessness in which even medical supplies are fair game for bandits.

The health minister, Ali al-Shemari, fled the country after U.S. forces raided offices in February and arrested his deputy, accused of diverting millions of dollars to the biggest Shiite militia and of allowing death squads' use of ambulances and hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.

The government official overseeing Iraqis living abroad was brought in as acting health minister in al-Maliki's shaky Cabinet _ which was further jolted by the walkout of six Sunni ministers in August.

Hospitals also are divided along Iraq's sectarian split, with Shiites and Sunnis often too scared to venture into any facility controlled by the other. For health workers, this leaves worrying gaps with cholera cases now reaching half of Iraq's 18 provinces.

The main hospital in Baqouba _ the city al-Qaida in Iraq earlier this year claimed as its base in the Diyala province _ was twice overrun by Sunni gunmen who kidnapped some of the Shiite patients, said a provincial health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety.

Fourteen Baqouba physicians and five ambulance drivers have been killed and 12 doctors kidnapped since Diyala fighting escalated earlier this year. Gunmen often steal medical equipment and medicine from health centers and force pharmacists to give up their supplies, the official said.

Saeed al-Shimary recounted how four months ago, as he lay sick in the Baqouba hospital, gunmen fatally shot a hospital guard and took several patients away, including his relative.

"I was horrified," said al-Shimary, a teacher. The relative's body was found days later, dumped by a road.

The "bad security situation ... is preventing medical teams from reaching the residents," said Hom Suhail al-Khishali, head of the Diyala health department.