At
liberation the public health system was an empty shell. During the
1990’s Saddam cut spending on public health by over 90 percent with
predictable results for the lives of his citizens.
By
October the Coalition:
- increased
public health spending to over 26 times what it was under Saddam,
- opened
all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics,
- increased
doctors’ salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam,
- increased
pharmaceutical distribution from essentially nothing to 700 tons in
May to a total of 12,000 tons,
- administered
over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq’s children.
Most
importantly, there is no evidence of any epidemic in Iraq.
