International
Iraqi doctors fleeing country: lawmaker http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=newiraq&slug=Iraqi+doctors+fleeing+country%3A+lawmaker&id=96843&callid=1
Thursday, November 23, 2006 (Vienna):
Iraq's top doctors are under threat and are fleeing the country, leaving hospitals in the hands of medical students or junior physicians, an Iraqi lawmaker said.
Doctors have been kidnapped and killed since the US-led invasion in 2003 that toppled ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Dr Rajaa al-Khuzai, an obstetrician who is an elected member of the Iraqi National Council.
"They have been targeted since the fall of the regime," she said on Wednesday during a visit to Austria. "Some of them have been kidnapped and found dead in the streets, some have been released after paying a ransom."
She also told reporters that Iraqi hospitals face a shortage of medicines and are in dire need of new equipment.
Al-Khuzai also estimated that cancer cases have increased fivefold since the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, and said there is a shortage of medicines to treat patients. (AP)