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Fever Named After Blackwater
FALLUJAH - Iraqi doctors in al-Anbar province warn of a new disease they call "Blackwater" that threatens the lives of thousands. The disease is named after Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. mercenary company operating in Iraq.
"This disease is a severe form of malarial infection caused by the parasite plasmodium falciparum, which is considered the worst type of malarial infection," Dr. Ali Hakki from Fallujah told IPS. "It is one of the complications of that infection, and not the ordinary picture of the disease. Because of its frequent and severe complications, such as Blackwater fever, and its resistance to treatment, P. falciparum can cause death within 24 hours."
What Iraqis now call Blackwater fever is really a well-known medical condition, and while it has nothing to do with Blackwater Worldwide, Iraqis in al-Anbar province have decided to make the connection between the disease and the lethal U.S.-based company which has been responsible for the death of countless Iraqis.
The disease is most prevalent in Africa and Asia. The patient suffers severe intravascular haemolysis -- the destruction of red blood cells leading to kidney and liver failure. It also leads to black or red urination, and hence perhaps the new name 'Blackwater'.
The deadly disease, never before seen in Iraq on at least this scale, seems to be spreading across the country. And Iraq lacks medicines, hospitals, and doctors to lead a campaign to fight the disease.
"We informed the ministry of the disease, but it seems that they are not in a mood to listen," a doctor from the al-Anbar Health Office in Ramadi told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are making personal contacts with NGOs in an attempt to get the necessary medicines."
The three doctors who spoke to IPS in Fallujah and in Ramadi in al-Anbar province that lies west of Baghdad, seemed sure that the Iraqi government would do little to face the plague.
"They have not even made any announcement so that people can take precautions," one of the doctors from Fallujah told IPS.
The doctor said a patient usually suffers three stages of malarial infection. "First is the cold stage where the patient will have chills and shaking, the second is the hot stage when fever takes over, and the third is the sweating stage."
Doctors in Fallujah say the new complication of the disease that may develop from malarial infection can be treated in its early stages, but is difficult to control when complications develop. Drugs currently being used to treat the disease include Chloroquin, Mefloquin, Pyrimethamine, Suladox, Halfotrin and Primaquine.
Patients seem unaware of the seriousness of the disease, though doctors tell them it is essential to buy medicines from private pharmacies because they are not available at general hospitals.
"Many have died within the past two weeks in my town," Mahmood Nassir, a schoolteacher from Saqlawiya, north of Fallujah, told IPS. "We know it is a deadly disease, but what can we do about it? We have no government to refer to, and everyone in the Green Zone (the government district of Baghdad) is too busy preparing to escape with their share of the money they stole from us."
Talat al-Mukhtar is an Iraqi doctor now studying abroad. IPS asked him to comment on the Blackwater fever outbreak in Iraq.
"Malaria is endemic in Iraq, mainly in the northern part. However, it is prevalent in the milder forms; the severe form had been reported but not at an epidemic level."
Dr. Mukhtar said this form of malaria requires a "triple-drug treatment programme because it is an aggressive infection." He said the patient "requires meticulous medical and nursing care, and might even need time in an intensive care unit, as it can easily lead to kidney and liver failure."
Like the other doctors IPS spoke with, Dr. Mukhtar was clear that the Iraqi ministry of health needs to take a proactive role before the disease spreads further. "These cases of severe fever that follow haemolysis should warrant immediate action from the ministry of health to investigate thoroughly these cases and assess whether they are malaria or other conditions."
Dr. Mukhtar added, "Considering the poor health situation and poor resources in Anbar province, even though clinical judgment is important, laboratory tests are not easily verified, and many other diseases can give the same clinical picture. That is why standard lab investigation is needed, may be with the help of WHO (World Health Organisation)."
The disease seems too sensitive for journalists to talk about.
"There was a great deal of anger when we wrote about cholera in Iraq last summer," a journalist in Fallujah told IPS. "Neither the government nor the occupation forces would accept our covering such a story."
IPS was not allowed to take pictures at the Fallujah General Hospital. A doctor refused to disclose how many may have been infected or how many may have died.
The spread of this condition follows the outbreak of other diseases. According to the WHO, as of Oct. 3, 2007 cholera outbreaks in Iraq had spread to nine of 18 provinces, and roughly 30,000 people had fallen ill with acute diarrhoea, with 14 deaths.
An Oxfam International report released last July showed that the humanitarian disaster in Iraq is compounded by a mass exodus of medical staff fleeing chronic violence and lawlessness. The report said the lack of doctors and nurses is breaking down a health system now on the brink of collapse.
The report said many hospitals had lost up to 80 percent of their teaching staff.
Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East
© 2008 Inter Press Service
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21 Comments so far
Show AllYes the term blackwater fever is old, the disease is new in Iraq (if indeed it is the disease as the article pointed out because with failing health systems the required testing is not available)
My partner and I have been puzzled for the last couple of years as to why the mercenary outfit named itself after the virulent disease (they actually named themselves after the blackwater swamps of North Carolina, where their corporate h.q. is located). In Peter Mattheissen's stunning novel "At Play In the Fields of The Lord", written in the late 1950's (about the wiping out of indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon by cultural and military genocide), the missionary's son dies of blackwater fever.
The other bizarre thing about Blackwater's corporate image is their logo. Take a look at it; no animal has a pawprint like that, unless it has a birth defect. Mammals have five toes, but one doesn't show up in the track, since it is located further up the paw (take a look at a cat or dog's paw sometime).
It all adds up to a company which is projecting a strange, mutated, and ultimately nightmarish image. Matches its product perfectly.
Perhaps a bushectomy can cure the cheneyitis.
Wait a minute. There was already a "black water fever" named long before the company was ever founded, although I don't know whether it involved malaria.
All I know is that" Blackwater" in Spanish(Aquas negras), means SEWAGE. How fitting that this mercenary company earn the distinction of having a dreaded disease named after them.
An in-depth debunking of this story may be found here:
http://www.julescrittenden.com/2008/03/26/blackwater-fever/
abelito, SEWAGE works for me. And g l tirebiter, maybe the Iraqis are "redesignating" the term to make a double meaning for it. Certainly they hate Blackwater even more than the Americans in uniform and with good reason.
And no, I don't think Blackwater have killed more Iraqis than Iraqis have killed each other. But who started this mess?
kathyodat
g l tirebiter linked to a site. I followed the link to the site, but it didn't seem to do any debunking, much less "in-depth." It mentioned that the disease was already known long before and that the name is incorrect. But the article here already says that. It says that the disease hasn't been seen in Iraq to this extent before and so they are calling it Blackwater fever, not for medical accuracy but for a political point. The linked site could still have given some details on this disease's appearance in Iraq which might have been useful, but I didn't find much more than pointing out those items I already mentioned along with a bunch of name calling. CD is probably not the right place to link to a right wing site as most people here aren't really interested in such, especially when it doesn't provide any useful information.
Sorry folks - I didn't mean to introduce any cognitive dissonance to the echo chamber.
This isn't a news report - and as near as I can see (4thefuture) it does not provide useful information. There is more than a dollop of speculation and a couple of healthy dashes of conjecture.
But turning a bad pun into a 500 word editorial is pretty lame.
The authors write "The disease seems too sensitive for journalists to talk about."
They should know.
Black water fever is the most severe form of malaria and has had that name at least since the 19 century.
Actually the link given by
g l tirebiter March 27th, 2008 12:31 pm
does not debunk the story at all, but only speculates.
Any bit of language adoption that properly paints Eric Prince's mercenary company is welcome. For me, they are an American Force Publique.
Hmmm...could be old Doc Mukhtar is a Doobie Bros. fan:
Old black water, keep on rollin'
Mississippi moon, won't you keep on shinin on me
Old black water, keep on rollin
Mississippi moon, won't you keep on shinin on me
Old black water, keep on rollin'
Mississippi moon, won't you keep on shinin' on me
Yeah, keep on shinin' your light
Gonna make everything, pretty mama
Gonna make everything all right
And I ain't got no worries
cause I ain't in no hurry at all
NateW says
"Any bit of language adoption that properly paints Eric Prince's mercenary company is welcome."
I second that statement.
Yes, the term blackwater fever has been around for more than a century, and yes it is a sort of extension of malaria, often caused by the use of qunine to treat malaria. It declined with the use of chloroquine, but has increased again as quinine was used once more because of immunity to chloroquine. It is quite deadly and quite fast.
It's much like the "Spanish" Influenza epidemic of 1918. It supposedly originated here and spread through Europe when we entered WWI. But nobody dared bring it up because they were at war. When the disease eventually spread to Spain, who was "neutral" during the war, it was news to the world, hence "Spanish Influenza".
Most of "these" corporate logo's involve the 'all seeing eye'.
Blackwater WW has a "deformed sty in that eye"... as you said, pretty twisted.
Bending the topic somewhat, for money they say is like water, the highly stylized glyphs on the Federal Reserve's one dollar notes, also has a Star of David formed from the 5 pointed stars representing the original 13 colonies, in the 'halo' above the eagle. Why is this there?
Only a sty for a sty, say I.
Malarial in Iraq? Ummmmmmmm! My best guess is that this was introduced by the US, or Black Water, as another member of the "coalition" to help gain the upper hand in the massacres being committed against the Iraqi peoples.
Talk about poetic justice. A disease named after Blackwater. That's perfect. They ought to call it the butcher's disease.
I would like to propose Monsantoitis aigû, as this company's strategy is to genetically modify living organisms to be able to charge royalties.
The worst is that nobody knows what the consequences are going to be and the so called added value of modified organism exists only in their imagination. However
Soon we will have to pay royalties to breath air.
I also believe that the human, animal and vegetale genome is universal property and should never be allowed to be owned by any private or public company.
Yeah. but do you rot away from the inside and leak pus on all the rest of the world? Private armies should be outlawed (duh) as they are not controlled or answerable to a nation which can be sanctioned by the international community. That is to say, they are mere terrorists. We become what we hate.