OBJECTIVE The main objectives of the present study were to investigate the rock pigeon parasitic communities from Iraq as well as reporting on the prevalence and intensity of various infections from both sexes. METHODS An examination of 128 specimens of the live rock pigeon Columba livia from Iraq was undertaken. The samples were obtained from several localities of Iraq. Blood samples were ex...

Disease and nonbattle injury (DNBI) are the leading causes of morbidity during wars and military operations. However, adequate medical data were never before available to service public health centers to conduct DNBI surveillance during deployments. This article describes the process, results and lessons learned from centralized DNBI surveillance by the US Army Center for Health Promotion and P...

The recent war in Iraq presents significant challenges for the surveillance and control of communicable diseases. In early April 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team of public health experts to Kuwait and a base was established in the southern Iraqi governorate of Basrah on May 3. We present the lessons learned from the communicable disease surveillance and control program impl...

Nada A. S. Al Alwan In addition to being the most important cancer, breast cancer is often associated with other features that threaten lives of women in Iraq. Studies have documented an exponential rise in the incidence rates of the disease, the prevalence of younger ages and advanced stages at the time of presentation. Mortality estimates displayed that breast cancer is responsible for the hi...

OBJECTIVES We sought to evaluate outcomes of the Veterans Administration (VA) Afghan and Iraq Post-Deployment Screen for mental health symptoms. METHODS Veterans Administration clinicians were encouraged to refer Iraq or Afghanistan veterans who screened positive for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, or high-risk alcohol use to a VA mental health clinic. Multivariate methods were use...

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the world, claiming six million lives each year. Although smoking prevalence is decreasing in high-income countries, many low- and middle-income countries, particularly fragile and post-conflict nations such as Iraq, are still seeing prevalence rates rising. With the evidence of higher rates of nicotine dependence in conflict and post-conflic...

OBJECTIVE Studies of soldiers from prior wars conducted many years after combat have shown associations between combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and physical health problems. The current Iraq war has posed a considerable PTSD risk, but the association with physical health has not been well studied. METHOD The authors studied 2,863 soldiers using standardized self-administer...

Background: Iraqi political prisoners were subjected to regular physical and psychological torture. Both physical and psychological torture methods were associated with increased PTSD symptoms, especially when combined. In Iraq, several articles were published on PTSD, but no study was focused on former political prisoners or torture victims. Therefore, this study was carried out to estimate ra...

814 When the Bush Administration was preparing to invade Iraq in March 2003, many archaeologists had a personal stake in trying to avert the conflict. They feared for the safety of their Iraqi colleagues and worried about the impact of modern warfare on the innumerable ancient sites that dot Mesopotamia’s landscape. The subsequent looting 1 year ago of cultural institutions such as the Iraq Mus...

BACKGROUND Recently, proposals have been made to improve mental health care for U.K. military veterans. Combat stress (CS), a veteran's charity, has provided mental health services for veterans since 1919. Since 2003, service users have included veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts; however, their pattern of help-seeking has not been evaluated. AIMS To describe the characteristics...